A taut story, elegant direction, and a rich, nuanced performance from Maika Monroe make Watcher a tense and unforgettable watch. From the score to the production design, every aspect of the film is infused with a sense of restrained beauty.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 17, 2024

Perfectly capturing what it’s like to be adrift in an unfamiliar place

| Feb 12, 2024

The film maintains such a naturalistic tone that the few scares doled out throughout are effective and the minimal bloodshed is subtle. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 8, 2023

sustained package that delivers on so many fronts that what could have so easily been a formulaic slasher, genuinely pushes the boundaries of its genre, toying with an unusual bleakness that will keep audiences guessing until the end.

| Sep 16, 2023

Watcher is a slow burn that is highly reminiscent of Old Hollywood, cat-and-mouse thrillers.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 23, 2023

Others have noted allusions to titles as varied as Halloween and Rosemary’s Baby, and I would add Repulsion to the list. Watcher is more modest than these movies, but the comparisons indicate that viewers should do well to keep track of Okuno’s career...

| May 9, 2023

Simple and effective -- at least to a certain point... [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 17, 2023

The film asks us to endure as it continues to test our ability to trust the word of a character who is all apathy and fragility until the last few minutes. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 15, 2023

By no means is the baseline plot original but it’s the carefully crafted scenes and quiet sense of menace that hangs in the air that make Watcher a fresh horror thriller.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2023

WATCHER is a gorgeous film of delicate tension. It’s an icy and elegant study of the constant state of fear that many women live in every day.

| Dec 28, 2022

The routine plot attempts to pull a few minor twists and turns, but it ultimately plays out exactly how you’d expect it to, leaving little to watch for in Watcher.

| Original Score: C | Dec 4, 2022

Watcher is a taut, tense and immensely watchable thriller. Plus that last shot is one for the ages.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 13, 2022

Okuno's direction and Monroe's performance, together, create a simmering anxiety that never really relents.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 9, 2022

It's a shame there's not much more to the film, but it definitely gets our hearts pumping a bit faster.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 8, 2022

Okuno’s Watcher is smart, engaging and intelligent, and it’s especially refreshing to see this sort of mid-budget, grown-up genre film getting a proper theatrical release.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 7, 2022

There are few genuine surprises, perhaps, but there are distinctive elements here which set the film apart, not least the way lack of fluency in a language creates a sense of siege.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 6, 2022

Watcher feels like a throwback to slower-paced psychological thrillers. It's deserving of your attention.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 4, 2022

A generic, unnecessary and forgettable thriller that barely stands out for the charm of its protagonist. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 4, 2022

In an impressively assured cinematic debut, writer-director Chloe Okuno builds the suspense splendidly...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 4, 2022

Okuno uses all the tools at the film-maker’s disposal to make us share Julia’s creeping sense of dread.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 4, 2022