Watcher, on AFN

Julia's predicament is similar to Jimmy Stewart’s in Rear Window, but instead of a broken leg, she is hobbled by a language barrier. She also has a useless husband, who makes a poor substitute for either Gracy Kelly or Thelma Ritter. Regardless, she starts to suspect the serial killer stalking Bucharest is watching her from across the street, but nobody takes her seriously in director-screenwriter Chloe Okuno’s Watcher, which airs Tuesday on Armed Forces Network.

Francis’s family used to speak Romanian when he was young, so he feels at home in Bucharest. Julia doesn’t, at least not yet, but she was about to give up on her acting career, so she agreed to relocate. Nevertheless, she feels immediately feels socially and culturally isolated. She also has the sensation of being watched. It looks that way too, judging from the illuminated silhouette, behind the curtains of the apartment opposite them.

As an unnerving bonus, the serial killer known as the spider has killed several women in the neighborhood. Julia wonders if all this creepiness might be connected when a mystery man starts following her. She never gets a good look, but he seems drably non-descript in an ominous serial killer kind of way. Of course, the cops do not take her concerns seriously and Francis tries to explain everything away as a product of stress and suggestion.

Despite Shudder and IFC Midnight handling the domestic distribution for Watcher, it really is more of De Palma-esque thriller (the term “Hitchcockian” really ought to be reserved for a select few), rather than a horror movie. However, it works rather well on those terms.

Nocturnal Bucharest is definitely creepy. In fact, some of the most unsettling sequences tie into the anxiety you might remember from being out too late in a foreign city, where you really do not know the language. Okuno also captures the unnerving feeling of being watched. (And seriously, why would their furnished apartment come without curtains?)

Okuno has discussed Francis’s disbelief in feminist terms, but Julia’s frustration is more universal than that. Too often, people ignore warnings and suspicious behavior, because acting on it would be awkward. It seems easier to explain it away, but that often leads to bigger trouble long-term.

Significant Other, on AFN

Let's agree once and for all, camping trips are never romantic. Harry still thinks otherwise, hatching a plan to propose to Ruth during a hiking trip. He really should have opted for a candle-light dinner, because a mysterious creature loose in the forest completely ruins the mood in director-screenwriters Dan Berk & Robert Olsen’s Significant Other, which Walmart members can watch on Paramount+ and American Servicemen stationed overseas with access to American Forces Network can watch this Thursday night.

Ruth comes with a lot of emotional baggage and a bottle full of panic-attack poppers. Harry wants to marry her anyway, because he is in love. However, after witnessing her parents’ chaos, Ruth is not sure she believes in marriage. She also worries about strange things she sees in the forest, like the deer with only one antler, who seems to be giving her the side-eye.

She is not wrong. Something weird and unearthly is definitely afoot. Unfortunately, Ruth and Harry get intimately enmeshed in the terror. Sadly, another camping couple also stumble into the sf-horror hybrid mess.

Regular genre viewers might guess what is coming, but Berk & Olsen execute it quite cleverly. They also benefit from casting Maika Monroe and Jake Lacy, two rising thesps, who really keep viewers off-balance, selling the premise convincingly. Indeed, Lacy is flat-out terrific during the third act, but it would be spoilery to explain how and why. Regardless, this is his best work yet, even better than his work in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and Apples Never Fall, which was also quite strong.

Although their names do not even appear in the opening credits, Dana Green and Matthew Yang King are also both very good as the other couple camping. There are some impressive-looking visual effects in Significant Other, but it is the sort of story that is far more reliant on its performances, especially that of Lacy.

Scary Movies XII: Villains

There is no “Make My Day” law in the nation that would cover the actions of respectable-looking George and Gloria when dim-witted Mickey and Jules break into their upscale exurban home. They could have just shot the moronic home invaders, but instead they try to scratch their psychotic itches in Dan Berk & Robert Olsen’s dark comedy, Villains, which screened during Scary Movies XII.

Only Mickey and Jules would knock-over a gas station, but forget to fill up the tank first. As a result, they find themselves broken-down near George and Gloria’s secluded home. Their original plan was to steal the car in the garage, but they get side-tracked when they discover a little girl chained up in the basement. At this point, their hosts walk in. Even though Mickey has the gun, George is the one in control of the situation.

Things get awkward quickly for Mickey and Jules. At least the little girl starts to warm to Jules. Frankly, she is probably smarter than the young crooks, who are definitely out of their league playing cat-and-mouse games with their nutty captors.

Villains basically shares the fundamental premise of Bad Samaritan, Monster Party, and to an extent, Don’t Breathe, but those films do their best to maintain a tone that is consistently tense and serious as a heart attack. Berk & Olsen’s game plan to extract laughs and suspense from the circumstances surrounding a child held captive in a basement is definitely gutsy, but the results are hit-or-miss in the extreme.

Nobody can blame the principal cast members, who are obviously working overtime to pull off the comedy and the horror scenery chewing. Maika Monroe is quite endearingly sweet and naïve as Jules, while Bill Skarsgård energetically plays against his It-type as big, dopey Mickey. Kyra Sedgwick is really weird and almost unrecognizable as the dangerously neurotic Gloria, but Jeffrey Donovan might even be more impressive, going all in and somehow pulling off all of George’s over-written dialogue with sinister verve.

The problem is we’ve been here before. The American movie business’s war on suburban normalcy is getting predictable. At this point, it would be more surprising if characters like George and Gloria were stable and decent. Not recommended, Villains opens September 20^th nationwide, following its New York premiere at Scary Movies XII.

Scent of Rain & Lightning

Oklahoma: it’s where the wind comes sweeping down the plain and family grudges can turn deadly. Technically, the book was set in Kansas, but the movie was shot in the Sooner State. Frankly, its not like New Yorkers or Angelinos could tell the difference. The family grudge business is what they will focus on, as will Jody Linder. Ten years ago, Billy Croyle was found guilty of murdering her parents, but his sentence has just been commuted. Since the past is already disturbed, Linder starts investigating that tragic night herself in Blake Robbins’ The Scent of Rain & Lightning (trailer here), which is now playing in Los Angeles.

Croyle is mean brute with and an evil temper. He definitely had a score to settle with his former employer, ranching baron Senior Linder (Jody’s grandfather) and the necessary capacity for violence. However, some inconsistencies in the trial record have come to light, starting with his son Collin’s anti-alibi. The morally conflicted young man now admits his father never roused from his drunken stupor on the night of the murders.

As Jody Linder peels away at the onion, she sees a darker side to her parents and platoon of uncles. There was also some embezzlement going on at their Colorado ranch, which may or may not be a red herring. Nobody really wants her to uncover the truth. Plus, the feral Croyle is still out there, nursing his grudges and resentments.

As a dustbowl noir, Scent is stronger on atmosphere than suspense. However, it is a terrific vehicle for Maika Monroe, whose work is remarkably sure-footed throughout the film. Despite her genetic good fortune, as Linder, she always comes across as very down-to-earth and humanly vulnerable. Watching her is like watching your own sister or daughter struggle with some deep, dark family secret.

Monroe also gets first-rate support from a deep ensemble bench. Brad Carter is chillingly and convincingly ferocious as Billy Croyle, while Will Patton demonstrates again why he is one of the best in the business with his hard-charging but increasingly complex portrayal of Senior. However, all the uncles duly look alike (doesn’t anyone in the plains states shave anymore?), which makes them believable as kin, but dashed difficult to tell apart.

Scent is undeniably predictable, but Robbins nicely evokes the lonely vibe of tallgrass country. The genre elements are so-so, but it is worth seeing anyway as a showcase for Monroe, who still has the potential to usurp Jennifer Lawrence’s position in Hollywood, especially given JLaw’s recent string of under-performers and outright bombs. Deserving more attention than its currently getting, The Scent of Rain & Lightning is now playing at the Arena Cinelounge.

Bokeh: Doomsday in Iceland

Is it the rapture or some weird Icelandic tradition? Two American tourists wake one morning to find they are perhaps the only people left in Iceland and perhaps the entire world. At least the streets are clean and the automated geothermal power will hold out longer than fossil fuel plants. One will try to make the best of it, but the other will see the apocalypse as definitely a “glass half empty” kind of event in Geoffrey Orthwein & Andrew Sullivan’s Bokeh (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Riley was really stretching to fund this trip, but in retrospect, they could have gone first class all the way. Regardless, both he and Jenai were enjoying Iceland’s stunning natural scenery and distinctive architecture, until the end of the world happens. They just wake up one morning and everyone is gone. There are no bodies or heaps of clothes left behind. The internet still works, but social media is completely silent.

Initially, they are distracted by short term concerns and anticipating long term issues. However, around about the second act, fissures start to develop in their relationship. Riley is almost happy to accept an Adam & Eve existence with Jenai in the sensible Icelandic environment. In contrast, she is increasingly depressed by the notion everyone else she knows is apparently dead or relocated to the Hale-Bopp Comet.

The word “Bokeh” refers to the area of a photograph that is out of focus, often deliberately so for artistic effect. Even if you know Riley is an amateur photographer, who compulsively snaps away with his old school Rolleiflex, Bokeh is just a terrible title that is guaranteed to hinder the film’s business. That is a shame, because it is a pretty credible addition to the apocalyptic cinema canon. In fact, it would make a good pairing with von Trier’s Melancholia (essentially arguing the opposite thesis, regarding personality types under catastrophic stress).

It is still rather baffling that It Follows' Maika Monroe has not reached a JLaw level of popularity yet. Granted, the Independence Day sequel did not work out the way her people probably expected, but still. Bokeh is too small (and bafflingly titled) to take her to the next level, but it won’t embarrass her when she finally gets there. It is considerably moodier and more existential than Night of the Comet (the gold standard for last-people-on-Earth movies), but it works nicely as a chamber piece.

Monroe and Matt O’Leary develop some richly complex chemistry together, conveying a sense of Jenai and Riley’s significant shared history. The Icelandic setting, with its orderly streets and aesthetically severe Lutheran churches, is genuinely inspired. It resembles Planet Ikea, but with geysers. Cinematographer Joe Lindsay perfectly capitalizes on the icy loneliness of the backdrops, making the survivors look as small as they feel.

The ending is bound to be divisive, but upon reflection, audiences should accept the rightness of it all. It is a surprisingly accomplished film that deserves more eyeballs than the headscratcher title is likely to generate. Recommended for fans of doomsday movies, Bokeh opens this Friday (3/24) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Echoes of War: Texas Feuding

It was called Reconstruction, implying rebuilding and renewal, but there was still considerable violence during the years following the Civil War. The Rileys will learn this first hand. They are not Radical Republicans facing the wrath of the Ku Klux Klan. They will simply get caught up in an old school family feud. Unfortunately, the war made killing is immeasurably easier in Kane Senes’s Echoes of War (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

The war has been over for a while, but Uncle Wade is only now making his way home to Texas. He clearly saw considerable action and it changed him. The Riley family had their share of tragedy on the homefront as well. His sister Elizabeth passed away, leaving his devout brother-in-law Seamus Riley to raise their nearly grown daughter Abigail and teenage son Samuel.

The kids love their uncle, but Riley is far less embracing. They seem to have history, but Uncle Wade has history with everyone. He soon discovers the formerly well-to-do McCluskey family has been raiding Riley’s traps with impugnity, barely leaving enough for the family to live on. The father is a turn-the-other-cheek fellow, who also remains mindful of the complicated relations between the respective families. In contrast, their thievery does not sit well with Uncle Wade, so he aims to fix it. Of course, this all complicates Abigail’s Capulet-and-Montague romance with the earnest but ineffectual Marcus McCluskey.

Eventually, Senes will get down to score-settling, but he is clearly more interested in exploring Uncle Wade’s post-traumatic stress and young McCluskey’s halting courtship of Abigail. Arguably, the chaotic in media res opener is not the way to commence a moody film like Echoes. It is an impressively textured film, with a good eye for period detail and natural backdrops. However, the tragic inevitability of the narrative could also be uncharitably described as predictable. Just imagine the worst that could happen and it probably will.

Regardless, an awful lot of people will eventually see Echoes on VOD or cable, because Maika Monroe is about ten seconds away from being the next Jennifer Lawrence. (Honestly, has JLaw done anything as cool as It Follows?) She is quite good as Abigail Riley, but her characters stays well within the conventional parameters for a daughter of the old west.

On the other hand, Ethan Embry is nearly unrecognizable, in every way, as the tortured Seamus Riley. His Old Time religion could have easily become the stuff of cliché and even mockery, but Embry uses it to bring out his humanity. It is a great performance, but also James Badge Dale proves he has the chops and presence to lead a film as the tightly wound Uncle Wade. As usual, William Forsythe does his thing as the overbearing McCluskey patriarch, but it is hard to see why Miss Abigail would entertain the advances of Rhys Wakefield’s lifeless junior McCluskey brother.

To its credit, Echoes is a handsome period production. At times, you can smell the honeysuckle and feel the hot dry Texas air. Senes helms with notable sensitivity, but the story of the shell-shocked veteran having trouble coming to grips with life after war started yielding declining marginal returns years ago. Recommended for western-Americana viewers looking for a streaming distraction, Echoes of War releases tomorrow (5/15) on iTunes and opens in New York at the AMC Loews Village 7.

Sundance ’15: It Follows

Finally, the abstinence education movement has the horror film it has always needed. When a suburban neighborhood bombshell finally sleeps with her newest boyfriend, she would have been much more fortunate to be infected with an STD. Instead, she picks up some sort of supernatural stalker. She can run or she can try to pass it on to someone else, but there will be no hiding from the malevolent entity in David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows (trailer here), which screens during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Everyone on the block is devoted to Jay, including her less glamorous younger sister, her dweebish elementary school boyfriend Paul, and Greg, the high school bad boy living next door to him. Ill-advisedly, she has decided to take the plunge in the mysterious Hugh’s back seat. At first, it is all lovey dovey, but after a spot of chloroform, she wakes up bound to a wheelchair. At this point, he gives her the bad news, pointing it out, in the spectral flesh.

An uncanny entity will now stalk her. It can take the form of any person, but only she and the formerly infected can see it. It can only walk and it is suspensefully slow, but it never stops until it catches it prey. Hugh does not want that to happen to her, because it would then follow the chain back to him again. Naturally, Jay and her friends assume it was all part of some sick game devised by the jerk calling himself Hugh, but a few unsettling incidents soon convince them otherwise.

It Follows is a distinctly creepy film due to the nature of its bogeyman, who often impersonates close family members, just to be cruel. Other times it assumes some truly ghoulish guises, but it could be anyone purposefully walking towards Jay. Yet, Mitchell also takes the time to develop his characters and establish their relationships. Even the location of their respective houses is important to his narrative.

Granted, Adam Wingard’s The Guest went south about halfway through, but it and It Follows really herald Maika Monroe as the up-and-coming “It-Girl” of genre cinema. She does the scream queen stuff well enough, but also forges believable chemistry with her assorted costars. Keir Gilchrist (a bit of a cold fish in Dark Summer) is particularly effective in this respect as the torch-carrying Paul.

Okay, so their big third act plan does not make much sense, but the movie essentially acknowledges as much, by having it go spectacularly awry. You would hardly expect it from his previous film, The Myth of the American Sleepover, but Mitchell’s horror film mechanics are unfailingly sure-footed, while Mike Gioulakis’ massively moody cinematography and the eerie electronic soundtrack concocted by Richard Vreeland, a.k.a. Disasterpiece, give it the look and ambiance of vintage 1980 horror, in the best sense. Highly recommended for genre fans, It Follows screens again today (1/25) and Friday (1/30) in Park City and Saturday (1/31) in Salt Lake, as part of this year’s Sundance.