The serial killer thriller is an enduringly popular genre, and has been for decades, but even the most ardent of supporters may not be aware that one of the year’s best examples has already been and gone, with Watcher flying almost completely under the radar.
Writer and director Chloe Okuno’s feature-length debut premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and quietly scored a theatrical release earlier this month where it brought in just shy of $2 million at the box office, but even a Certified Fresh label on Rotten Tomatoes (thanks to an 87 percent critical score) wasn’t enough to capture widespread attention.
Which is a real shame, when horror veteran Maika Monroe (of It Follows and The Guest fame) delivers another accomplished central performance as a young actress who just moved to the bright lights of Bucharest after her husband secures a new job. Once there, though, it soon becomes apparent that the mysterious stranger constantly eying her from across the street and the infamous serial killer prowling the city streets may well be one and the same.
Watcher does a great deal with very little, providing an excellent showcase for Okuno (who has a very bright future behind the camera) in the process, and it’s finally been gaining the audience it deserves on demand. As per FlixPatrol, the atmospheric stalking tale has cracked the iTunes Top 10 in the United States, which hopefully leads to the effective chiller sinking its hooks into viewers everywhere, something it deserved to do the first time around.
Published: Jun 25, 2022 03:12 am