El extraño

Having enjoyed Chloe Okuno's segment in V/H/S 94 to some extent, I was exciting for her feature debut. Watcher is a film that reminds you of some of Hitchcock's works, be it in building a slow-burn suspense drama set in a mysteriously new atmosphere and in the way the lead character is established. Chloe also extracts an excellent performance from Maika Monroe who portrays the "fish out of water" protagonist. The best thing about her portrayal is that she manages to induce the same levels of anxiety in audiences too. She effortlessly makes you step into her shoes - the confusion she feels by not fully grasping the local language, that feeling of loneliness when you're in a new place spending days mostly by yourself, the burgeoning dread of having a stalker - all conveyed remarkably well.

The script doesn't have any major twists or surprises to offer, but it keeps you invested in whatever Julia is up to. The only trope I didn't enjoy is the indifferent husband, which gets repeated to terrible effect here. I truly enjoyed the film's aesthetics - be it the use of space, color grading, choice of camera angles, and sparse lighting. Cinematographer Benjamin Kirk Nielsen uses extended shots to convey a sense of paranoia. I'm pretty stoked for anything Chloe Okuno does next!

This was a fantastic paranoia thriller. Maika Moore is fantastic as the lead actress and the villian was also perfectly cast, he was quite menacing. The story here is very well done, albeit derivitive and at times you must suspend some levels of your disbelief, but it provides just enough twists and turns throughout to keep it from getting stale. With that said, the movie can also be kind of slow in parts, but I feel like it was a slow burn done right. Hitchcock would be proud of this film. The ending does it right, however I would've enjoyed an extra five minutes just to know what ended up with these characters, but I think I got the jist of it, so I digress. If you're looking for a good paranoia horror/thriller, this would be a great choice and you could definitely do worse. I recommend to people who enjoy a go slow burn that leads up to creepy conclusion. 3.5 creepy creepertons out of.

Great visuals. They did a good job of filming every scene to make everything look super creepy. Acting is mostly good, but I absolutely hated the husband's character. I get that he had to be that way to keep the story going, but man it's frustrating.

I didn't really know much about "Watcher" before I started watching it. In truth there's not all that much to know to be honest:

A couple moves to Romania. Husband works while wife sits around waiting for him to come home. Wife believes that somebody is stalking her and husband thinks she is going crazy.

It sounds ridiculously simple because it is. We've seen it before - HOWEVER - Okuno clearly set out to make a brilliantly executed suspense flick and did just that.

The movie is contained and everything in it is there for a reason. Cinematography and especially the sound design is incredibly well done and makes the simplest thing like shopping for groceries an unnerving experience.

And finally the biggest praise has to go to Monroe. She has come a long way from "It Follows" and here she brings this simple movie to life with outstanding (and very believable) acting that successfully makes you question her sanity. Hopefully she'll bless us with her talent in many more (horror) movies to come.

Now obviously "Watcher" isn't the perfect movie even though everything is done so well. The fact is that we've seen it all before - countless times - and Okuno plays it extremely safe here by taking no chances whatsoever. This makes for an underwhelming movie experience as a whole and will no doubt bore some viewers.

Do I recommend "Watcher"? If you love suspense - YES. To witness Monroe's brilliant performance - YES. If you're looking for a great movie - NAH, go find something else.

Wow, just wow. I had no expectations about Watcher, but it turned out to be really good.

Like seriously, everything worked so well up until the ending, which felt somewhat disappointing and didn't make much sense. It wasn't the worst thing they could've done though, so thanks for that.

Actual care was put into the film and it shows. All the elements they have are nothing new, really, but these blend quite well. The unfamiliar environment, the language barrier, the fear, and the feeling of being misunderstood and left alone by the careless close ones. Great acting, great atmosphere, great music. Just overall a solid thriller that tried to step away from cliches as much as possible.

I can agree that the pacing was relatively slow, but it only helped absorb the atmosphere of what was happening.

A split 7.5/10 could've been an 8.5/10 if not for the ending that felt a little too much, although I get the message.

I am looking forward to new movies from the director.