Before 'Longlegs,' Maika Monroe Faced Another Serial Killer in This New-To-Netflix Hitchcockian Thriller

Maika Monroeis most well-known for her performances in It Followsand Longlegs, two horror films released nearly ten years apart, but in the years in between those two films, she gave another career-best performance in the 2022 thriller Watcher, which was recently added to Netflix. Written and directed by Chloe Okuno in her feature debut, Monroe’s character faces a similar plight to her characters in both It Follows and Longlegs, but what makes the premise of Watcher even scarier is the fact that it’s grounded in reality and devoid of any supernatural elements. In Watcher, Monroe plays Julia, a young woman who moves to Romania with her husband Francis (Karl Glusman) for his job and soon believes she’s being stalked by a creepy neighbor who keeps staring at her from his window across the street. In this Hitchcockian thriller, Julia faces not only the fear of falling victim to a local serial killer but culture shock, social isolation, and gaslighting, setting Watcher apart from Monroe’s other most notable films.