Posted by Larry Gleeson

Day 3 at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival brought forth in the US Dramatic Competition what seemed like a Maika Monroe vehicle with Chloe Okuno’s Watcher, a genre-bending thriller. Watcher is set in Bucharest, Romania, and tells the tale of a young, blonde, expatriate female coping with life in a new country and the uneasy feeling she is being watched.

 

Maika Monroe appears in Watcher by Chloe Okuno, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Maika Monroe is cast as the lead, Julia, and her physical talent is on full display. Her physicalities in a train sequence are extraordinary. While the plot is a bit predictable, the visuals and inclusiveness of various genres, combined with Hitchcockian touches make the film quite palatable, and Maika Monroe’s performance as Julia is just as delightful as it is impressive.

Stay tuned for more on The Watcher!

Director/Writer Chloe Okuno of Watcher, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of 42 West)