Watcher (2022)

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.

**Watcher's pace can sometimes feel haphazard or arbitrary, but the strong finale makes it all worthwhile.**
The Watcher builds slowly, spending plenty of time emphasizing the main character's isolation and loneliness. Each passing moment of this slow burn accentuates the paranoia of being watched. Maika Monroe proves her horror chops once again with Watcher, as she has before with movies like It Follows and The Guest. I wanted to give this movie a better rating than 3/5 but the gradual crawling pace of the film, although intentional and effective in creating tension, had me looking at my phone out of bordem. The last 20 minutes of the movie are intense and pay off nicely, though, and make it worth hanging around until the end. As a horror fan, I enjoyed Watcher and would recommend giving it a shot, but don't set your expectations high.