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7th September 2024
05:57pm BST
Netflix has just added Watcher, the incredible 2022 thriller movie starring scream queen Maika Monroe (The Guest, It Follows, Longlegs).
The feature debut of writer-director Chloe Okuno, Monroe in the film plays a young actress named Julia who moves from America to Bucharest in Romania for her boyfriend's job.
Struggling with isolation and the language barrier in her new surroundings, Julia learns in local news reports about a serial killer targeting young woman city.
This coincides with her also noticing a mysterious stranger watching her on a daily basis in her apartment from across the street.
While Julia's boyfriend Francis (Karl Glusman, Devs) thinks she is overreacting, the actress starts to suspect she is in real danger.
Co-starring the always excellent Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim), Watcher was not a huge hit upon release - grossing a reported $3.2 million on $5 million budget.
That said, it was adored by critics for the most part, garnering an impressive 88% Rotten Tomatoes score.
It's easy to see why, thanks to Monroe's fiercely likeable lead turn, the movie's unique setting, Okuno's intoxicatingly stylish direction, as well as the filmmaker's screenplay - which starts slow but gradually rises the tension to fever pitch through every taut turn of the plot.
Okuno's script is also hugely engrossing in how it leaves viewers genuinely uncertain for much of its runtime as to whether Julia is in true peril or not.
You can read a sample of some of the glowing reviews for Watcher below.
Arizona Republic: "A cut above any number of this type of film."
Los Angeles Times: "This beautifully crafted jewel of a throwback thriller signifies Okuno as a talent to watch, but furthermore, it pushes the viewer to question what, and who, we choose to believe and why."
New York Times: "Okuno deftly elevates Watcher from a Hitchcockian homage to one of this century’s most arresting tales of female anxiety."
Time Out: "Okuno's direction and Monroe's performance, together, create a simmering anxiety that never really relents."
Variety: "Watcher is actually pretty damn good. That's thanks in large part to a terrific Maika Monroe, who gets the mature, psychologically rich showcase she's fully earned with all the running and bleeding she's done heretofore as a horror heroine."
Watcher is streaming on Netflix in Ireland and the UK right now.
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