Watcher
IFC Films | Release Date: June 3, 2022
6.2
USER SCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 67 Ratings
USER RATING DISTRIBUTION
Positive:
33
Mixed:
28
Negative:
6
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User Reviews

User scoreBy dateMost helpful
4
KingDavidthe1stJun 25, 2022
Ugh. How long do I have to wait for anything interesting to happen. Short on suspense and drama. And, the character is just so fragile... come on. Are we to believe such a fragile bunny would pack up and move to a foreign country whereUgh. How long do I have to wait for anything interesting to happen. Short on suspense and drama. And, the character is just so fragile... come on. Are we to believe such a fragile bunny would pack up and move to a foreign country where she knows no one, doesn't know the language and have a boyfriend that provides zero support? Blah. Big fan of lead actress and the bad guy actor... but, really wasted w/ weak script, story...… Expand
0 of 1 users found this helpful01
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5
IntakeCinemaJul 5, 2022
This is fine... These types of films just bore me to no end. The film looks pretty good and the performances are good, but there just wasn't anything here that really held my attention.
0 of 1 users found this helpful01
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5
Voodoo123Jan 11, 2023
The fantastic cinematography and pacing can't help the shallow rear window style script and predictable plot from failing to build tension. Cast were ok at best although the direction was very good. In such an oversaturated genre this failedThe fantastic cinematography and pacing can't help the shallow rear window style script and predictable plot from failing to build tension. Cast were ok at best although the direction was very good. In such an oversaturated genre this failed to excite me beyond the average. The choice of ending was a terrible mistake. Overall worth a watch for thriller fans.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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6
OrukayuJan 22, 2023
2022 thriller movie. The couple, who are American, move to Romania as a result of the appointment of the man. They are holding a house. For some reason they don't have curtains. At the first stage, they don't care much. Then a woman is killed2022 thriller movie. The couple, who are American, move to Romania as a result of the appointment of the man. They are holding a house. For some reason they don't have curtains. At the first stage, they don't care much. Then a woman is killed in the neighborhood. In the news (which is the news of Kanal D), it is said that the woman was followed before. The female of our curtainless couple sees someone watching from a flat opposite. Then she realizes that the same man is watching her outside. Everyone, including her husband, diagnoses the woman with paranoia.

There is a love scene at the beginning of the movie. No sex or nudity afterwards. Average thriller.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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5
Mauro_LanariJun 22, 2023
(Mauro Lanari)
Sundance debut burdened by the overload of old reflections between Sofia Coppola and Alfred Hitchcock, from "when you're feeling alone, you're probably not" to a long reverse shot of "Rear Window" and from De Palma's eroticism(Mauro Lanari)
Sundance debut burdened by the overload of old reflections between Sofia Coppola and Alfred Hitchcock, from "when you're feeling alone, you're probably not" to a long reverse shot of "Rear Window" and from De Palma's eroticism to the metacinematographic of "Peeping Tom", and of new fixations such as toxic masculinity. Pretty sure that curtains exist in Bucharest.… Expand
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5
hnestlyontheslyMay 22, 2023
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Watcher is of a simpler time, though it’s hard to know if that simplicity is a symptom of pandemic era production protocols or a production schedule that rolled out a blander copy of Kimi nearly a year after we all emerged from our apartments and wandered the wide earth to seek new pastures.

This movie review breaks one of the cardinal rules of HotS, which is that the film has to be currently in theaters (or about to be, as in the case with the Cinejoy Film Festival that’s starting tomorrow), but it falls into the confluence of several different interests I’ve been building momentum towards for a few months, so it might be work keeping on the books for future reference. The confluence in question is 1) after seeing Andrea Riseborough in Please Baby Please, I wanted to see what else the dashing Karl Glusman had been in besides Nocturnal Animals and this movie was his most recent work; 2) readers of this blog know that I have a healthy appreciation for the weirdly specific Amazon Prime genre of voyeur thrillers; and last but not least, my ongoing theory that a lot of movies in that genre (Puzzle, Woman in the House/Window, Kimi) would be solved by the (white) woman lead getting a job, literally any job.

There are a lot of reasons to be open to this movie, independent of whether you share in my weird fascination with these three above characteristics. The lead, for instance, Maika Monroe, was the star of indie darling It Follows and featured in the wonderful slow burner Hot Summer Nights with Timothee Chalamet. Our villain is the brilliant character actor Burn Gorman, of Pacific Rim, Dark Knight Rises, Guillermo del Toro’s most recent creepypasta remake of Pinnochio, and many other scary thriller-y things. This is the directorial debut of Chloe Okuno, who had previously co-directed a horror film called VHS 94 which looks very weird, and previous to that a short film which I’m going to link to below, which also seems of a piece with her wild and fun-loving scream queen aesthetic. In implementation of these resources, however, The Watcher is nothing special. It is in all aspects unoriginal, with only the thinnest possible commentary on the months of isolation that were endured by the world. On that dubious-no-one-has-even-mentioned-so-why-did-I-consider-it score, the movie indulges in the fantasy that the pandemic either never happened or is not ongoing, making it in some ways a little less outstanding than its contemporary Kimi, which had the obvious advantage of some amazing wigs. The Watcher violates the audience’s sacred compact (exchange of suspension of disbelief for reliable narration) by including at least one dream sequence which is not flagged as such, opening the can of worms, as Wife puts it, for anything to be imagined, or everything, which actually has the opposite effect on the tension, lowering the highs by making them all possible moments for the protagonist to wake up in bed and whisper “that was spooky” to herself.

It’s hard to ascribe high-minded commentary to a movie whose major problem would be solved by the main character picking up some part time editing work from home while her husband brings home the bacon. Maybe a bridge group? Online poker? Honestly any hobby would have prevented this entire scenario from playing out. And if we’re going to spoil anything here, it’s worth mentioning that the real hero of this movie, Julia’s (Monroe) neighbor Irina, whose approach to the world of the (sometimes) aggressive world of the male gaze is to profit off of it at work, tell it to **** off when it pounds on her door, and ignore it while having a cocktail with a friend, really does not get the ending one might expect from a movie trying to navigate a middle path. If anything, Irina’s end is a signal that Watcher lacks a level of sophistication. Watcher is not sexy. It is not exciting. It’s bland workplace gossip and white girl in a new city angst. Maika Monroe continues to be an unadulerated boss **** but this is not the role she deserves.… Expand
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5
RohmoSep 20, 2022
A tense paranoia that strives with tension but ultimately doesn't pay off in the end...
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4
royalguy07Aug 4, 2022
Thriller heavily lacking on thrills. The Ending was improved from the rest and brutal.
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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6
NForTheThrillFeb 22, 2023
It went to slow it needed more action happening I'm a fan of Malika Monroe so I'll give it a 6
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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