Rating: 4/5
Julia and Francis moved to Bucharest. Francis’s mother is from Romania, so he speaks Romanian, but Julia is still learning. Francis works long hours, and Julia is reevaluating her life after a stint as an actress, so Julia practices her Romanian and explores the city. From their large apartment windows, Julia notices a man who always seems to look out at her when she is at the window.
Julia and Francis pass by an accident, but no one knows what happened. On the news the following day, she sees a news report about a woman murdered in her apartment—she realizes it’s the scene they passed. At a dinner with Francis’s colleagues, she learns that the woman was decapitated and that this is the most recent in a series of similar murders in the area.
The film follows Julia as she navigates her new life, her anxieties around the serial killer, and the unnerving suspicion that someone is following her.
Julia’s neighbor, Irina, befriends her. Irina is dealing with an ex who won’t leave her alone. But Irina carries a gun, so she knows if her ex tries to cross a line, she has a defense.
— Do I sound paranoid? — Let's hope you never find out. The best outcome may be that you live with the uncertainty.
This film plays brilliantly with perspective, regularly putting us in Julia’s shallow depth of field. She sees the face of the man following her, but we only catch glimpses of him. As we piece the glimpses together, they don’t always add up to a coherent person.
So many movies try to pull off the tone this movie achieves, and it does it so effortlessly that it’s hard to pinpoint how this one succeeds where others fail. Perhaps it’s in Chloe Okuno’s directing or her screenplay rewrite. Maybe it’s Maika Monroe’s performance.
This movie won’t surprise genre enthusiasts, but if you appreciate the craft, you’ll love how it gets there.