52 Films by Women Vol 6. 48. WATCHER (Director: Chloe Okuno)
Contains spoilers Watcher is a serial killer thriller with the exploitation taken out. Reworking a script by Zack Ford, writer-director Chloe Okuno delivers suspense, the obligatory dream sequence, a false shock or two before working towards a climax that doesn’t make a heap of narrative sense. The film’s most radical element is not to allow the viewer any vicarious pleasure as the killer attacks their victims. The drama portrays a wider societal anxiety, that women who speak out about menacing male behaviour aren’t believed. It also offers tourist views of the Romanian city of Bucharest, where the film is set. Beyond that and a sympathetic central performance from Maika Monroe as Julia, a former actress in transition who has followed her Romanian-speaking boyfriend, Francis (Karl Glusman) to Bucharest, it doesn’t offer much pleasure to audiences. To damn it with faint praise, it is a horror film you can watch without getting too irritated. It begins with street sounds befor...