He’s Watching (2022) Review

Synopsis

A brother and sister discover a presence in their home while their parents are in the hospital suffering a mystery illness that seems to only affect adults, and the siblings team up to discover what the presence is and how to escape it.

He’s Watching Good Points

It Takes Its Time

A lot of horror films seem terrified of having a quiet scene, especially in found footage, where if nothing scary happens for three minutes, they start throwing in loud noises and fake-outs, but here, it lets scenes sit for a bit and builds tension through uncertainty instead.

The Atmosphere

The atmosphere is the real star of the show here, with a constant feeling that something isn’t quite right without needing to constantly prove it, and even during ordinary scenes there’s this nagging sense that something is off.

Some Really Creative Visual Ideas

Considering the budget, there are a few moments that that are fairly clever, with a couple of scenes working far more than I would expected it too.

It Knows When Not to Show Everything

A lot of the fear comes from not knowing exactly what’s going on, and for most of the runtime that works in its favor.

The Isolation Works Really Well

The isolation feeling gives you this genuine feeling of being stuck somewhere with very few options, and the longer the film goes on, the more trapped everything starts to feel.

Strong Child Performances

Child actors can completely sink a horror film sometimes, but thankfully that’s not a problem here, as the younger cast do decently enough and don’t become annoying, which made the family side of the story much stronger.

The Dread

I can barely remember any cheap “loud noise equals scare” moments here, and most of the tension comes from anticipation instead, with some scenes where absolutely nothing was happening and I still felt uncomfortable because the film had trained me well to expect something around every corner.

It Has Its Own Identity

I did respect the fact that it at least feels like it’s trying to do its own thing, even if it doesn’t always work.

He’s Watching Bad Points

The Weirdness Occasionally Gets in Its Own Way

Every so often the film seemed to get a bit distracted with some strange ideas that didn’t really add much.

The Ending

While I understood what the ending was trying to do, but after such a strong build up, I was hoping for a finish that tied everything together a little more cleanly.

Certain Scenes Drag

There are a few scenes that probably could have been trimmed without losing anything important.

Mood Over Story

Yes, the atmosphere works pretty well as said, but maybe it was a bit too focused on that aspect at times rather than actually progressing the narrative, which did make parts of the film feel a little aimless.

Worth Watching?

It certainly doesn’t get everything right,but it’s creepy at times, and feels like it was made by people with an actual idea rather than a checklist of horror clichés.

He’s Watching on IMDB
He’s Watching Trailer
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