Watcher

Writen by Niko on October 18, 2024

This review contains minor spoilers - be warned. Watcher is a masterclass in subverting audience expectations. It starts out as a fairly generic "my neighbor might be a serial killer"-flick, but ends up being a lot deeper than that. What makes it stand out is how it manages to make the audience question if Julia's suspicions are actually grounded in reality or just misinterpretations of coincidences the longer the movie goes on. You can kind of see both her perspective and that of the people that doubt her, which is something I have very rarely seen done well in a film of this genre. There's a major twist in the finale, which I found bold and impressive. It's unfortunately followed up by a pretty generic trope that heavily negates the impact of the previous scene. I feel like the writers chickened out in the very last minute of what could've been a very unexpected and memorable turn of events. The clear strength of this movie is the buildup, even if the payoff ends up slipping into mediocrity. The performances are believable and it manages to keep up the pace without ever being slow or boring. I can recommend checking it out.