IFC Midnight and Shudder’s 2022 darling, Watcher, is creeping ever closer. Starring Maika Monroe, Watcher is a paranoid slow-burner that examines the dangers of real-life situations through a Hitchcockian lens. The psychological thriller is set for a fall release and will be available to own on Blu-ray.
For any horror fans looking to bulk up their collection, writer and director Chloe Okuno‘s Watcher is quickly approaching. When Watcher hit theaters in June, it came on the heels of Alex Garland‘s fever-dream Men. While some fans were still reeling over an inexplicable birthing scene that may have overshadowed the actual terrors of the movie’s underlying message, Okuno’s film quietly let itself in. After its premiere at Sundance, some audiences considered Watcher predictable, yet therein lies the abject dread. In the film, Monroe plays Julia, an American actress who moves to Romania with her husband. Unable to fluently speak the language, without work, and knowing essentially no one, Julia experiences strangling isolation. On top of that, she’s piecing together through news clips and a nearby attack, that a serial killer known as “The Spider” is on the loose.
Okuno builds suspense so stifling as we see Julia handle her loneliness and paranoia day-to-day. While her husband is preoccupied with his new job and frustratingly dismissive of his wife’s mounting fears, Julia begins to venture out to ease her anxieties over the shadowy figure constantly watching her from the building across the street. Unfortunately, it’s these trips out of her confinement that make Julia’s apprehension bubble up until she takes matters into her own hands, despite the dangers. The build-up is so tense, and the surreal abandonment from both the police and her husband is so baffling, that by the time the film reaches its climax the predictability is exactly what enrages the audience. Of course, the husband won’t listen, of course, the police refuse to do further investigation…
In an interview with Letterboxd, Okuno discusses the importance of utilizing formulaic elements some watchers may deem mundane:
“I felt like as many times as you tell this story, it’s not like we ever really fix this thing where women are written off a little bit as overly emotional, even if we’re aware of it now. I think you can be aware of something and it’s still ongoing, and it’s still a problem.”
Watcher is Okuno’s debut feature film, following her award-winning AFI thesis, a short titled Slut, which actress Monroe was enamored with prior to receiving the script for Watcher. With this film alone, as tightly structured as it was, and with her foreboding script adapted from a screenplay written by Zack Ford, Okuno is paving her way to hopefully becoming a horror director to look out for — more women in horror, please! You can check out more of Okuno’s work in V/H/S/94, the “Storm Drain” segment, and her upcoming dating show thriller The Dating Game, with Anna Kendrick currently set to star.
The cast of Watcher includes Karl Glusman (The Neon Demon) as Julia’s husband Francis, Burn Gorman (Guillermo del Toro‘s Pinocchio) as Watcher, as well as Tudor Petrut, Madalina Anea, and Daniel Nuta.
The Blu-ray for Watcher is available for pre-order at Amazon and is set for release on October 4. Watch the official trailer and check out the Blu-ray box art down below: