Stalker movies are hard. The first impulse with them is to mix them with gaslight movies. That’s a horrible combination most of the time. You see, I know it’s a stalker movie, which means one of two things: 1) There actually isn’t a stalker and the protagonist is insane. That’s a deflating twist ending that no one wants. 2) There is a stalker. Since we’re following the protagonist, we know there’s a stalker. Then it’s annoying to see everyone else bend over backwards to believe there isn’t a stalker.
The latter option is what Watcher opts for. Julia (Maika Monroe) moves to Bucharest with her husband because he got a promotion. She’s isolated all day in a country she doesn’t know where most people speak a language she doesn’t know. One day, she notices a man following her and watching her from his window across the street. This makes her uncomfortable and everyone from her husband to the police tell her she’s exaggerating. She’s not, and you can figure out where this goes.
Watcher has shockingly little tension. The stalker (Burn Gorman) is a bad stalker and Julia is a bad victim. He’s too obvious about the stalking to leave the audience in doubt but not bold enough to feel like an immediate threat. One version of this movie could be about all the hiding in plain sight the stalker is doing. Keep him anonymous for as long as possible. Keep Julia at ill ease all the time and make it the kind of thing where, once you know who the stalker is, you watch the movie again and see him in the background of a bunch of scenes. Or, go with an active predator movie. The stalker is so good at stalking that he doesn’t hide it. He always has an alibi in place or successfully makes Julia seem crazy. Instead, Gorman is pretty obvious in his stalking. The only reason he gets away with it so long is because Julia mishandles it so badly. I was hoping she’d be cleverer.
The movie gets certain bits of atmosphere right. It shows how unsettling Bucharest can be to someone who isn’t familiar with it. The age of Europe really helps with horror. Monroe holds the screen well and tries to make her character beats feel natural. The overall vibe of the movie works. I just wish the story beats met the level of the direction and performance.
Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend
After the Credits
What is Gorman’s plan exactly? He’s been identified as who Julia thinks her stalker is. The police know about his connection to her. So, he’s going to kill her neighbor in his distinctive serial killer fashion then kill Julia and expect to get away with it? This movie implies that he is very good at what he does, but if these are his actions every time, I don’t understand how he wasn’t caught after the first murder.
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