When she’s out, Julia can feel someone watching her.
Tension mounts as a woman near where she lives is murdered.
An interview with a survivor mentions the feeling of being watched before being attacked.
Image via IFC Midnight
While in the city again, Julia can still sense someone watching her as well.
Is it the same man who was following her at the store?
We can’t tell.
A young American actress moves with her husband to Bucharest, and begins to suspect that a stranger who watches her from an apartment window may be a serial killer.
Julia is brave enough to wave to him, and to her horror and ours, he waves back.
She’s not exaggerating.
Julia now has proof that the man is indeed watching her.
She watches him walk into a strip club called The Museum.
She also sees Daniel, who works there as well as a janitor.
That night, Julia hears strange noises coming from Irina’s apartment, where she lives alone.
It sounds like a struggle is ensuing.
Concerned, Julia knocks on Irina’s door, but no one answers.
Again, Francis ignores her concerns.
Image via IFC Midnight
Cristian knocks on Daniel’s door, but no one answers.
After Cristian is gone, and now alone, Julia tries knocking on the door too.
This time someone answers, but instead of Daniel, it’s an old man.
Later in the evening, the cops show up at Francis and Julia’s apartment with Daniel in tow.
He has called them about Julia, who he says is stalking him.
Daniel explains himself and, even though she’s highly uncomfortable, gets Julia to shake his hand.
What is it like being afraid and alone as a woman?
Maika Monroe gives us a taste of that fear.
In her almost empty car sits Daniel.
He watches her, then even gets up and walks toward her.
Creeped out, she gets off the subway and damn near runs home.
Then Julia hears the sound of music in Irina’s next-door apartment.
She knows she shouldn’t, but she has to investigate it.
She lets herself inside Irina’s apartment and suddenly this slow-burn thriller turns into an all-out horror film.
Daniel pops up from behind her and puts a bag over her head, causing her to faint.
She tries to scream, but Daniel slits her throat with a knife.
It’s no minor wound.
Julia is gushing blood.
Her world goes dark as the watcher looks on.
We then switch to Francis in the apartment he shares with Julia.
He sees her suitcase lying out but no Julia.
Francis calls her and hears the phone ringing in the next-door apartment.
When he steps out into the hall, there’s Daniel coming out of Irina’s door.
Standing behind him is Julia, somehow still alive, but covered in blood.
She has come to, found Irina’s gun, and dealt with her attack all by herself.
The film ends there.
That can be from a clueless, self-involved husband, or society as a whole.
For Julia, it’s her dead friend’s gun that saves her.
In the end, Julia is proven to be right, but at what cost?
