The Monitor

Noomi Rapace as Anna and Vetle Qvenild Werring as Anders move into a spacious flat on the outskirts of Oslo, hoping that distance from their past can shield them from the violent ex-husband who might still try to claim custody. They are watched over by the intermittent visits of Grete, [Maria Bock], and Ole, [Stig R. Amdam], two child-care workers who warn Anna that the custody battle could reopen at any moment. To keep Anders safe, Anna initially makes him sleep in her room, but when the case workers discourage this, she buys a baby monitor to keep a constant vigil from afar, a decision that will blur the lines between protection and fear.

At a local electronics store, Anna encounters Helge, a shy man whose mother’s terminal illness casts a shadow over his life. Helge’s quiet, patient understanding of Anna’s struggle offers a rare solace: a chance to be seen and not judged, a contrast to the relentless pressure of maintaining boundaries for her son. Their budding friendship is gentle and tentative, a small island of warmth in a relationship built on shared vulnerability. Helge respects Anna’s fierce commitment to not letting go of Anders, even as he grapples with his own family worries, and Anna finds in him a listener who doesn’t rush to solutions or judgment.

One night, the baby monitor reveals unsettling sounds—voices and screams that cut through the night. Anna races to Anders’ room, only to find him sleeping peacefully. Helge explains that the monitor can pick up distant frequencies, and together they try to interpret the data on a map sketched by Anders. The sense of danger grows more complex: Anders introduces Anna to a boy who looks like him and claims he is a new friend, a quiet, enigmatic figure who unsettles Anna with his silence and odd behavior. A disturbing drawing by Anders—a dead body smeared with blood near their apartment complex—seems to confirm Anna’s fear that something is deeply wrong, and she attributes the image to her son’s unsettling “friend.”

A visit to a lakeside area becomes a chilling turning point. The pair are redirected to a parking lot, and Anna’s suspicions of foul play intensify as she follows a woman she believes is connected to the screaming on the baby monitor. She witnesses a man drowning the boy who claimed to be Anders’ friend, and in a desperate bid to intervene, Anna leaps into the water only to blackout. She awakens in a hospital, drenched and confused, with the fog of fear still clinging to her.

Back at school, the principal accuses Anna of child abuse as she tries to reclaim responsibilities for Anders, and she returns home determined to protect him, even if it means defying authority. The front door is left ajar when she first stumbles back inside, and Ole appears with a troubling update: the ex-husband is coming to take Anders away. In the heat of panic, Anna grabs a pair of scissors and fatally wounds Ole just outside their doorway, the act borne of fear, blame, and a desperate need to keep Anders safe at any cost.

Helge rushes to the scene, only to find Anna on the windowsill, Anders’ small presence seemingly wrapped around her as if to anchor them to the world. As he approaches, Anna tilts forward and falls, and Helge finds her body in the room below, with Anders gone into the silence of the building. The subsequent revelation unsettles the heart of the story: Anna’s husband had killed Anders years earlier and then taken his own life. Helge discovers a drawing Anna had made of a grave near the apartment block, and in the forest he finds a buried body—likely the boy who claimed to be Anders’ friend, a victim of brutal parents and hidden abuse.

In the final moments, Helge sits beside Anna’s body and recounts the old tale of a boy and his mother, a bleak truth about a family pulled apart by fear and violence. Yet the film closes on a note of quiet, if bittersweet, tenderness: a memory of Anna and Anders walking together in the forest, then sitting by the water’s edge, a fleeting vision of safety and connection that persists beyond tragedy.

Last Updated: November 22, 2025 at 15:59