Welcome to the Cutting Room

“Watcher” is an infuriating little movie. A really well made one, but infuriating nonetheless. Directed by Chloe Okuno, (making her feature debut, previously directing the “Storm Drain” vignette from “V/H/S/94”), “Watcher” explores what happens when people don’t fucking listen to women. A lot of us can relate, I’m sure.

Former actress Julia (Maika Monroe, “Longlegs,” “It Follows”) has tagged along with her significant other Francis (Karl Glusman) to Bucharest, where Francis (raised in America, but with a Romanian mother) has taken an exciting new position at his job. It quickly becomes apparent that although Francis is fluent in Romanian, Julia knows almost none (she plans to surprise Francis when she’s got a handle on the language). Moving to a whole new country where you know no one, don’t know the language, and don’t know your way around is a huge leap of faith and I would never. After arriving at their new apartment (all facilitated by fluent Francis), Julia pauses to take in the scenery. As she looks out the window she is able to watch neighbors going about their business. She looks up and sees someone else looking out their window, presumably doing the same.

I usually watch movies with subtitles because I sometimes have issues with processing speech/enjoy a lil snack now and then. The first time I saw “Watcher” it was streamed from a friend’s Plex server and subtitles weren’t an option, so I was unable to understand any exchanges in Romanian. However, director Okuno (or whoever would be in charge of that, I don’t make movies) purposefully doesn’t add subtitles for what’s being said in scenes where Julia is surrounded by people speaking Romanian, alienating the viewer right alongside the protagonist (unless you speak Romanian, in which case this part doesn’t apply). I love it.

Julia is left to her own devices often because Francis works so much. She boldly wanders around the city alone, stumbling through interactions with Romanians, drinking wine, and living the “stay at home partner” lifestyle I guess. When Francis finally takes Julia out for a night on the town the pair happen upon a crime scene. Later, the couple learns from a news program that there was a murder; the latest in a series attributed to The Spider, a mysterious serial killer. Throughout all of this Julia keeps seeing the same figure at the window across the street. Is she being… watched? Is it just that their staring out the window time is synced up? Is it a mannequin? Patience, dear reader. Around this point in the movie it dawns on me that Francis could easily be controlling the amount of information to which Julia is privy. I’m sure if he is doing this it’s because he believes he’s doing her a favor and not causing her anxiety to rise (don’t be like Francis). Julia voices her concerns about the figure across the street but nothing is done about it.

Francis has some work friends over one night, and the couple is made aware of more details from the crime scene they stumbled upon on their night out. Not only was the victim murdered, she was decapitated. Francis and his friends often slip back and forth between speaking Romanian and English, prompting Julia to become frustrated. At one point she snarkily asks if she should leave while “the grown ups” are talking, making the alienation she feels glaringly apparent. Julia’s former acting career comes up in conversation giving another reason for people to think she’s just seeking attention or being (ahem) dramatic.

Julia watches an account from one of The Spider’s victims who escaped (on her laptop, in a public place, WITH NO HEADPHONES. Such a pet peeve.) confessing that she feels the need to forever look over her shoulder since the attack; never feeling free of the man who attacked her. This freaks Julia all the way out, adding to her mounting paranoia about the watcher. Hoping to clear her mind, she stops into a theatre playing an American movie, probably yearning for a tiny slice of home. Partway through the film, however, someone sits down directly behind her, slowly leans forward, and SNIFFS her. She flees the theatre because what the fuck. She proceeds to a market where she catches a man (Burn Gorman) watching her. Hypervigilant at this point, Julia tries to keep an eye on the strange man, believing he’s following her. Eventually, after backing into and breaking some jars, alerting the strange man to her whereabouts, Julia flees the market.

Returning to her apartment, Julia tells Francis she believes the strange man at the market was also the theater sniffer, and she was followed. Shocking absolutely no one, Francis attempts to calm her nerves by reminding her that she has her “big strong man” to protect her. But does she? Because she seems to be on her own an awful lot. To his credit, Francis does accompany Julia to the market to ask about security footage from earlier in the day. We see a lot of Julia looking freaked out on the tapes and nothing terribly suspicious of the strange man. Francis theorizes that maybe the strange man was freaked out by the strange woman (Julia) staring at him and acting crazy, once again minimizing her concerns. I’m sensing a pattern here. Julia snaps a picture of the man in profile from the security footage and the couple return home, apparently satisfied (fucking Francis).

Francis continues to be absent, and Julia continues to try to accommodate him (“keep it light” ugh) in the snippets of time they do have. Julia begins to acquaint herself with her new neighbors, specifically Irina, who lives next door. Irina’s a huge help to Julia because she doesn’t treat Julia like she’s crazy. Irina divulges that she was once in Julia’s situation, having moved to London for ballet knowing almost none of the language. She tells tales of her ex boyfriend and how he got her a gun for protection. Also her apartment is cool as hell. After a few drinks at Irina’s, Julia returns to her own apartment. Full of liquid courage and drunken confidence, she flings the curtains open to watch the watcher. To prove to herself that she’s not the one being watched, Julia slowly puts her hand on the window. After a beat, the figure also moves its hand to the window, extinguishing the flicker of hope Julia initially felt. Upon Francis’ return, Julia briefs him on everything, and watches in horror as Francis flips off the figure across the street (why not antagonize the creep? He’s not the one in danger, after all).

Julia pleads with Francis to get the police involved, who are, naturally, unhelpful. At this point this whole movie is just about men not listening to women (and it stays that way). Francis agrees to accompany the cop to the watcher’s building to scope out the guy. Confirming that the figure in the window IS IN FACT the man from the market but NOT SEEING A PROBLEM WITH THAT, Julia is further led to believe she’s losing it. She tearfully tells Francis that she wants him to believe her, which at this point I really don’t think is too much to ask. Despite this, Francis keeps asking what he can do to help, nevermind that she LITERALLY JUST TOLD HIM. As is often the case in a situation like this, she, defeated, replies “nothing.”

On one of her jaunts around the city, Julia randomly spots the strange man from across the street. Admittedly not beating the “strange” allegations, Julia follows him. Ultimately, she arrives at an underground strip club, where the strange man works as a janitor. Irina also happens to work there as a dancer, and Julia plies her for details on the man. Irina remarks on the ephemeral nature of employment at the club, denying any knowledge of the man. It’s starting to seem like maybe he’s after Irina more than Julia. Irina thanks Julia for looking out for her and assures Julia that she’ll try to do the same for her. 

Jolted awake by a nightmare where she’s suffocated in her bed, Julia hears a scream and the sounds of a scuffle from Irina’s apartment later that night. She raises hell, demanding that the landlady investigate, but the noise is condescendingly explained away by being blamed on a roaming cat (named Elvis – Elvis is unharmed and very cute). Julia is continued to be infantilized by those around her when the landlady chastises Francis for Julia’s behavior the next morning. Julia puts on a brave face for Francis because he clearly doesn’t think her fears warrant anything from him.

Irina’s ex comes looking for her because she was supposed to meet up with him the night before. No one is able to get in touch with Irina. I think we all know where this is going, and it’s extra shitty because Irina has been doing everything right (I think this is why her death is so upsetting to me. That and she’s awesome). She’s streetwise and doesn’t take shit like the comparatively naive Julia and she still gets murdered (spoiler alert). After neither are able to get Irina to pick up the phone, Julia ropes Irina’s ex into helping her gain more information on the strange man. The pair enter the apartment building across the street and knock on the strange man’s door. When no one answers, the ex yells at the door to leave Julia alone (once again, only antagonizing with no regard for the person in danger).

Because of course he has, DANIEL WEBER (Gorman) HAS CALLED THE COPS ON JULIA FOR HARASSMENT after she tailed him to work (fair tho). Finally there’s a name we can attribute to the face. When they show up at Julia’s apartment with Daniel in tow, the cops basically tell the two to leave each other alone. A truce. Throughout the encounter Daniel won’t meet Julia’s eyes but shakes her hand in the creepiest way possible. Also, unrelated (wink) it seems The Spider has been apprehended! End of movie, right? Nah.

Julia and Francis attend a party thrown by the powers that be at Francis’ job, and, surprise surprise, Julia mostly hangs out by herself while Francis rubs elbows with his peers. After he finally brings her into their conversation, it quickly becomes apparent that Francis has turned Julia’s anxiety into a fun little party story (bro). Unfortunately for her, they’re all speaking in Romanian. Unfortunately for him, she’s been practicing and catches an incriminating snippet of conversation. Julia leaves, because Francis is a fucking dick.

Unable to even call a cab, Julia is having the worst possible night. She ends up on a train, where she sees Daniel a car over. The two make eye contact and it’s awkward. The train stops due to something on the track and Daniel, extending an olive branch(?) approaches Julia. Sitting across from her, Daniel proceeds to explain why he watches people. His father is very sick and he’s his caretaker, so when he’s not at work he’s stuck in the apartment. He goes on to explain that no one ever saw him watching him, so he felt a type of way when a pretty girl waved at him. He’s just a lonely nice guy, nothing nefarious. It looks like there’s a head in the plastic bag next to him. He quietly asks for an apology from Julia, which he gets. But it’s totally a head in the bag. It has to be (it totally is, y’all).

Returning home, Julia starts packing because fuck Francis, but hears music coming from Irina’s apartment. Julia rushes over and knocks on the door. After no answer and finding the door unlocked, she enters Irina’s apartment TO FIND HER HEADLESS BODY (using the same MO as The Spider, but I thought they CAUGHT him, whaaat?). SURE AS SHIT IT’S DANIEL WHO’S KILLED HER AND HE ATTACKS JULIA WITH HIS BAG (which totally has another head in it now). Fully vindicated, Julia cries for help and has her throat cut by Daniel, robbing her of her voice (not like anyone’s been listening to her this entire movie, [I see you Ms. Okuno]).

Shocked (how?) and horrified, seeing that he’s pushed Julia to the point of packing her stuff, Francis hunts for Julia; too bad she’s in Irina’s apartment bleeding to death. She slowly crawls away from Daniel but loses steam quickly. Daniel lays on the floor next to Julia to watch her die. Once he’s satisfied, wiping the blood from his knife Daniel looks out the window to see a little girl across the street staring at the bloody tableau (guess he’s not as invisible as he originally thought). In a moment of clarity and finally attempting to be a good partner Francis calls Julia. He hears ringing coming from Irina’s apartment. Being not fucking useless for once he heads towards the apartment and sees Daniel exit. This whole last scene is so tense and has me holding my breath. Distracted by Francis, Daniel is then SHOT by JULIA who ISN’T DEAD thanks to Irina’s pistol. Francis had better MOVE MOUNTAINS for this woman if he wants to properly apologize. Her last look to him is WITHERING and I hope she dumps his ass.

“Watcher,” or “Not All Men But Definitely This Goof Troop,” was an exasperating, edge-of-my-seat watch, so I assume it accomplished what it set out to. Art is supposed to make us feel something, after all, even if that something is pissed. The film forces us to take a look at how damaging it can be to not believe a woman who believes she’s in danger, which is unfortunately all too common. We’re still seen as “hysterical” or overreacting when a lot of women have been conditioned into a near-constant state of hypervigilance by the world around us. We’ve all at one point or another been told we’re “crazy” or haven’t been believed when we’ve had legitimate issues (or maybe I’m just projecting here). Regardless, trust your gut. If someone gives you the creeps, avoid them (and hope your partner/family/friend isn’t as useless as Francis). “Watcher” is a beautifully made movie, too, but goddamn did it make me mad. 5/5, no notes.

As  always, I recommend checking Does The Dog Die for any triggers or things you don’t want to see before starting *any* horror movie.

All views expressed are my own, you don’t have to agree with them! I’m open to respectful discourse.

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