Chloe Okuno’s Watcher debuted at Sundance 2022 as part of the Midnight strand of programming. Now, a little over a year later, after a healthy festival campaign and cinema release, Watcher is available to own on Blu-Ray and DVD. Starring Maika Monroe and Burn Gorman, Watcher charts the story of Julia (Monroe) as she relocates to Romania with her husband. Unable to speak the language, and with her husband busy with his new job, Julia finds herself adrift and alone in a foreign land. A violent killer being on the loose only adds to Julia’s anxiety. To make matters worse, Julia starts to believe that one of her neighbours is following her. Could he be the murderer the city is looking for? And if so, will anyone believe her?
As this year’s Sundance was drawing to a close, THN spoke with Chloe Okuno to discuss how the last year has been. We also delved into the Watcher’s controversial method of story-telling, how gender differences have affected audiences’ reactions, and Okuno’s desire for more mermaid horror.
Watcher debuted last January at Sundance, how has the journey of the last twelve months been?
It’s been crazy honestly. It’s been funny the last week having Sundance happen again, because I’m like “wow it’s been a whole year.” I don’t know how that happens. I’m feeling of course just bitterly jealous of all the people who get to go to Sundance in person this year. It’s been kind of a whirlwind. As a filmmaker, you spend years, and in my case, I’ve been at this since I was 18. I had spent 16 years of my life trying to get to this very critical moment of releasing the feature film that I directed at Sundance, what could be better than that? It was a little surreal. To be honest, it was like a wonderful, exciting learning experience, the rest of the year. Because the part of it that I’ve never done before is selling the movie, and marketing it, and doing press for it. I just get to be on a Zoom talking to people about the experience of making the movie. And also, the slightly more stressful aspect of making the right promotional choices with trailers, the marketing materials and all of that. It was a nice year of a bit more of a relaxing circus than you have when you’re making it.
The original screenplay was set in Brooklyn, what prompted the change in location?
It was New York for quite a number of years. The original script was New York and then I think when I came on, I pitched some version that wasn’t that different; it was like a nameless North American city. Like in Seven, that just feels like a really scary big city place, where our lead Julia is from a small town, and she’s a fish out of water, and overwhelmed.
Romania came about because of the pandemic, I think we couldn’t really afford to shoot it anymore in Canada or the US. So the producers came to me with the idea of shooting it in Romania. Initially because I hadn’t necessarily thought of it taking place in a foreign country, it took me a second to get used to the idea. But I was very quickly excited by what that aspect of it could bring to the story, and the thing that we already had of Julia feeling out of her element, out of her depth, in this big city. That would just be amplified so much more in a foreign country where she doesn’t speak the language.
I had spent time abroad so I knew firsthand what that felt like, and I was genuinely just really excited for the challenge as a writer and filmmaker. How I could create, hopefully, an authentic experience for people. That they could relate to. That I could bring people into what it is like to be in her shoes, to not be able to speak the language, and all the ways that feels, isolating and alienating, and just added to her feeling her general feeling of unease.
Watcher primarily works for the viewer because they are in Julia’s shoes, unable to understand those speaking around her. Have you heard what the experience is from those that are familiar with Romanian?
It must be very different. I’ve heard a little bit. Of course, we made the movie in Romania, but when you’re making it you’re inside the process, and you’re not seeing the final product. I feel like the thing that we miss a little bit when we don’t subtitle it, which I feel like is absolutely the right choice, I’m so happy that everyone got behind that, because it can be very controversial, and for some people very alienating. Some people hate the fact that there are no subtitles.I feel like the one thing you do miss is there are some slightly more humorous elements to some of the conversation between the Romanians, and those actors are all really funny. You’re not really missing any crucial information, but it’s the added colour of their discussions about this clueless American Girl that I think is quite funny. If someone who spoke Romanian saw the movie, that experience would be a little different, and almost a little lighter in some ways. I think taking the subtitles away puts you into Julia’s point of view entirely, which makes you feel very at sea, very lost and very overwhelmed, and I think it’s just a little bit of a heavier darker experience.
Watcher is careful to keep on foot in reality, Julia never quite becomes the hysterical female that is portrayed so often in these stories. How important was it to you that she never went off the rails?
It’s funny, depending on who you ask, they might disagree with you. It’s been fascinating watching the reactions. For me, I agree with you, part of the mission of making the movie was, “how do we keep this grounded in terms of feeling like this could happen in some way?” Even though it’s heightened, and it’s a film, it is staying in the realm of, part of this is scary because it feels like a real thing that could happen at some point. But there’s some people who I think find Julia’s actions to be completely hysterical and out of left field. Like she has lost all touch with reality. Personally, as I was writing it, I was thinking at all times, “what would I do in this situation?” There are things she does that are maybe controversial, but for me, she’s been pushed to the point of having very few options left to her.
The fascinating thing is that in any given situation, an individual person would react a little differently, how I would react to the situation is not the same as how somebody else would. I did feel it’s important to me that I bring a sense of internal emotional logic to this. It’s like you’re saying, it’s not that she’s just becoming a totally hysterical woman. It’s more, as a woman who has experienced a very lesser, minor version of maybe my fears being dismissed, or not being believed, if that were to escalate, how would I react to it? Even in those smaller moments in the beginning, I think those moments for a lot of women are the ones that are the most infuriating because we’ve been there. We’ve had that experience unfortunately. I feel like it was very much the mission to make it grounded so that it could feel that much more relatable. It feels like a person whom you could recognise.
It’s a great example of a ‘believe women’ story. What are the reactions that you’ve gotten from audiences? Have they differed between men and women?
To an extent. I mean, #notallmen, some men relate, and very much feel for her, and feel I think incensed and infuriated on her behalf, which I appreciate. It’s funny, early on, as we were showing the movie to people, and this has evened out and changed a little bit, but I really did feel like women were responding to her character more strongly than men in general. And that for some of the men, they found her and her actions alienating, whereas women understood it more on a gut level. I do find that it seems for a lot of women to tap into a stronger, visceral, emotional reaction, because maybe they recognize some of this, and because they’ve had the experience and they find it infuriating, from a first-hand perspective.
After promoting Watcher for the last year, what’s next?
I wish I could talk..there’s one that I really would love to talk about, but I can’t yet. The other one that I’m really excited about is, I have a script that is a sort of horror take on mermaids that I wrote years and years ago. I’ve always loved it and I’m working on that one with The Watcher producers, so I really hope that at some point it will come to life and I’ll be able to make this insane mermaid horror movie.
There are too few of them…
I’ve actually consciously steered away from it, even though it sounds totally different, I haven’t seen The Lure, but I know that’s one that people really love. But you’re right, there’s a few really hilarious b-movie ones, but there’s very few actual mermaid horror, and just mermaids in general, give me another Splash!
Watcher is out on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital HD now.
