Dabble Babble

Movies for all moods…

  • Expat Horror in Romania

    Photo of Maika Monroe in a Romanian subway.

    With the Wall Street Journal reporting that the number of Americans moving abroad has reached an all-time high, I thought it might be a good moment to take a fresh look at this 2022 expat horror film.

    Set in Romania, Watcher is a horror film about American expats Julia (played by Maika Monroe) and Francis who move to Bucharest, Romania for Francis’s new job.

    While Francis is half-Romanian and fluent in the language, Julia is only just learning the language. This and the suspiciously long hours that Francis works at his new job, leaves Julia to spend most of her time alone accumulating language skills via her cellphone and brief conversations with a waiter who is ultimately humored by her attempts to learn Romanian.

    Poster for Watcher features Maika Monroe standing in a window with the reflection of an apartment building across the street. In the center of the building is an illuminated window and the figure of a man.

    Watcher really captures the experience of living abroad in an unfamiliar culture and language. It doesn’t take long to realize that someone looking at you could be curious or criminal. They could be talking about you right in front of your face or simply recounting the troubles of their morning commute. You don’t know! And neither does Julia as she navigates a beautiful, gray city in early spring.

    Add to this landscape of uncertainty a neighbor across the street who may or may not be looking at her too much. Of course we know that he is watching her…it’s in the title after all. This knowledge allows us to really sit with the impact of what happens when people don’t believe a person.

    When Julia attempts to sound the alarm that she’s being watched, almost no one believes her. Francis suggests she’s mistaken or exaggerating. A clerk at a local store suggests she’s a thief using the lie to cover her intent. Even the police dismiss her pleas, though in perhaps the most polite way. But not everyone doubts Julia’s story. Who believes her and helps her is an equally interesting element of the film.

    While we do know that she’s right, she is being watched, we don’t know why. The answer is one of the more chilling and tense confrontations in horror.

    At 1 hour and 36 minutes, Watcher is a great weekday reset or primer for your new life abroad!

  • 3 Horror Films for Summer

    3 Horror Films for Summer

    Horror films often have similar locations. The woods. Abandoned buildings. Your parents house. Yikes! But, they also trend toward the colder and darker months of the year. They often have a season and for good reason, this is a period of the year that brings danger for human beings.

    But, what about those films that don’t draw on the mood of autumn or winter seasons? What about those horror films that take place in the full, often punishing light of the sun. Here are the 3 horror films for summer to kick off the season.

    Midsommar (2019)

    One could probably categorize this as folk horror, a genre that seems to be growing every years. Like many of the best atmospheric and psychological horror films, Midsommar is also a film about grief.

    When Dani, played very well by Florence Pugh, descends into a world of depression brought on by a family tragedy, a research trip with her boyfriend leads her to an unfamiliar community in Sweden. There she finds a community that may not be what it seems.

    Coming in at around 2 hours and 28 minutes, Midsommar is a great Sunday afternoon horror.

    Lord of Illusions (1995)

    I have a soft spot for the films directed by the writer Clive Barker. This film mixes magic and the detective genre with the somehow every-timely topic of cults. The concept may be pretty familiar to anyone who watched the short-lived Dresden Files series that aired between January and April of 2007. Lord of Illusions is the darker, more R-rated horror ancestor of the series.

    When private detective Harry D’Amour, played by Scott Bakula, is engaged to investigate the death of a magician, he’s drawn into a world of illusion and its very real and horror counterpart magic.

    Coming in at around 1 hour and 49 minutes, Lord of Illusions is a perfect Friday night or after work watch!

    Lavender (2016)

    Shot in Ontario, Canada, Lavender tells the story of childhood secrets come home to roost in adulthood. (Who can relate to that?)

    Jane, played by Abbie Cornish, is a photographer suffering injuries from an unexpected and potentially unnatural accident. As she attempts to recover and come to grips with the causes of her accident, she finds herself on the trail of secrets about her own life that, when revealed, will leave her changed forever.

    Coming in at around 1 hour and 32 minutes, Lavender is another one of those films that makes for a nice evening unwind after a hard day at work or summer play.

    That’s my roundup for 3 Horror Films for Summer! What are your favorite picks? Leave your ideas in the comments, I’d love to see what other films people are enjoying.