Plot
Julia and her husband Francis move to Romania for his work. They are put up in a modest apartment, where having some insomnia, she spots someone staring out of their window across the street right into her apartment!
Believing someone is following her, a recent murder spree in the area has put her on edge – and tensions mount between Francis and herself when her sanity unravels.
Direction
Directed by Chloe Okuno (who I have not come across before) – it is soundly directed – and has all the hallmarks of a thriller. There is a well made scene towards the end of the film, with some great visuals, and practical effects.
This seems to be her only full length movie that she has made to date.
Cast
Maika Monroe plays Julia, I thought she did a fine job – she has seemingly found a niche for herself, having done other thrillers such as Longlegs.
Francis is played by Karl Glusman, who is good, but he just slightly bland. This is nothing against him as an actor, I just don’t feel the character was developed enough other than the ‘workaholic’ husband who doesn’t believe his wife’s story.
Burn Gorman is really the MVP as their neighbour Daniel Weber, whom Julia insists is both watching her, and stalking her.
Breakdown
Set in, and filmed in Bucharest, Romania – we are introduced to Julia and her husband Francis. He has moved there for work, and she has moved there to be with him. He is originally from there (the actor Glusman is not) so he is able to converse with those around them, while she cannot.
I thought this was an interesting choice, because she is immediately off guard being a foreigner in a foreign land. For almost all the conversations she has with those around her, it is ‘one sided’ where they are speaking Romanian to her, but she is unable to converse. Even we the audience are not given subtitles (well the version I watched), so we too are just as uncomfortable as she is .
Even though she is unable to converse, she finds the locals somewhat charming – even if her landlord is slightly uptight. She finds that her neighbour is fluent in English, and they become friends.
Because she feels so isolated, she spends a great deal of time in her apartment, and soon notices that someone across the road in the apartments across the way, is staring in at her. I thought this was going to be all in her head, and the audience was being gaslit with it being a mannequin or something similar, – until they waved back.
There is also a ‘tertiary’ arc within the film of a serial killer within the neighbourhood called The Spider, which puts her on edge. When she believes that someone is following her (someone sat directly behind her in an empty theatre, and then followed her to the local grocery store), her sanity begins to unravel, and even her husband is not in her corner (seriously, the guy could care less!)
As the runtime progresses, so does Julia’s ability to cope, and she makes some poor choices (like following the watcher into a dark alleyway, and down a into a dank basement. Silly! This leads her to have a complaint made against her – and we finally meet the watcher in Burn Gorman as Daniel Weber. At this point in the film, we are truly unsure if there is anything that he is doing that is actually wrong. Especially by this stage in the film we know that The Spider, the serial killer who decapitates his victims has been caught!
The final 20 minutes, in which Daniel confronts Julia while their train has stopped has some moments of calm, comedy and almost terror – and this is followed by an intense altercation that will leave you gobsmaked.
I discussed this on my podcast further, so you can listen to our discussion there.
Overall
I quite enjoyed this one, and found that the tension surrounding the characters to be well done.
Julia’s predicament is well played, and the final act is solid – even if it could have gone in alternate directions.
A solid recommend.
4/5
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