WATCHER - INTERVIEW WITH MAIKA MONROE and CHLOE OKUNO

Scream Queen Maika Monroe is back in her element in the creepy new thriller, Watcher.

In WATCHER, Julia (Maika Monroe) joins her husband (Karl Glusman) when he relocates to his family’s native Romania for a new job. Having recently abandoned her acting career, she finds herself frequently alone and unoccupied. One night, people-watching from her picture window, she spots a vague figure in an adjacent building, who seems to be looking back at her. Soon after, while alone at a local movie theater, Julia’s sense of being watched intensifies, and she becomes certain she’s being followed — could it be the same unknown neighbor? Meanwhile, a serial killer known as The Spider stalks the city.

WATCHER had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and also screened at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival. WATCHER will open theatrically on June 3rd from IFC Midnight and will stream exclusively on SHUDDER August 26th.

The film is co-written and directed Chloe Okuno who is based in Los Angeles. Chloe is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a masters degree from the American Film Institute Conservatory. There she received the Franklin J. Shaffner Fellow Award, and directed the award-winning horror short film SLUT. Her recent work includes writing a remake of “Audrey Rose” for Orion Pictures and writing and directing a segment of the anthology series V/H/S/94.

I spoke with Chloe and Maika about the film.