Ancil
Watcher is a psychological thriller film that premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The film was written and directed by Chloe Okuno, based on an original screenplay by Zack Ford. It was released on June 3, 2022. It tells the story of a woman in a foreign land where she starts to suspect a man from the building across from her house is watching her and could just be the serial killer who has been beheading women throughout the city.
The film stars Maika Monroe as Julia in the lead role, Karl Glusman as her husband Francis, and Burn Gorman as Daniel Weber aka the watcher. Here’s what went down in the film in detail:
Watcher Synopsis
The story follows Julia who has moved to Bucharest with her husband, Francis. She does not know the language as well as Francis does, which leads to her feeling out of place. They move into a house with a big window and a picturesque view. She immediately spots a man from the building across lingering by his window. They also arrive in the new place to news of a serial killer on the loose. They called him The Spider and he had recently murdered a woman in their neighborhood. Julia soon becomes obsessed with the killings.
Julia soon starts to suspect that she was being stalked by the man from the building across. She finds him following her around everywhere she went. She is disturbed by the incident but her husband is not so convinced. Everyone around her attributes her nerves to the move to an unfamiliar country. But she does manage to befriend Irina, their neighbor. They confide in each other about their fear of the serial killer. Irina even shows the gun her boyfriend had given her to help her feel safe.
Julia Gets Tangled In The Spider’s Web
Julia notices yet again that the man from across was staring into their house and decides to do something about it. She waves at him and sees that he waves back. Convinced that he was the stalker, she calls the police on him. The police and Francis pay the man a visit and learn that he is Daniel Weber, who get away without any consequences. Julia decides to follow him and check his whereabouts and finds that he worked as a janitor at a strip club where Irina was also employed. She asks Irina about Daniel but she says that she does not know anything.
Later that day, she hears a commotion in Irina’s house and goes to check on her. No one answers the door and she gets the landlady to open the door to check on her friend. They find no trace of her at all. But the incident leads to Francis getting impatient with Julia. He asks her to stop but the very next day, when Irina’s boyfriend comes over to check about Irina’s whereabouts, she joins him to confront Daniel his house. Initially, no one answers but after the boyfriend leaves, an old man opens the door. The same night, the police come for Julia after Daniel reports her for stalking. They are asked to call a truce over the misunderstanding and shake hands on it.
Watcher Ending Explained
Julia goes to a party with Francis where she realizes he has been making fun of her fears of the serial killer and the man stalking her. She storms out and finds Daniel in the subway and goes over. He shares with her the reason for his voyeurism as a way to escape his mundane life. While talking to him, she realizes there was a severed hand in the bag he had and runs away from him at the next stop. She goes home and starts packing when she hears music from Irina’s house. When she goes to see if her friend is back, she sees Irina’s headless corpse before she is smothered with a plastic bag.
Julia regains consciousness and Daniel recounts how he killed Irina. During this explanation, they hear Francis enter their flat and she tries to get his attention by screaming. But Daniel slashes her throat. She still tries to go for Irina’s pistol but loses consciousness. Francis calls Julia’s phone which starts ringing in Irina’s apartment. He goes to the hallway and sees Daniel coming out of it. Before he can reach him, Julia appears with the gun and shoots Daniel. She feigned unconsciousness to mislead him and kills him instead.
