Fleeing New York City, a failed marriage and a fragile mental history, artist Robert Forrester moves to small-town Pennsylvania. There he becomes fascinated with the simple domesticity of a beautiful neighbor, watching her through the windows of her home --- until she invites him in for coffee. He is drawn into a relationship with the young woman whose boyfriend goes missing; Robert becomes a murder suspect, gradually sensing he is the target of a larger plot.
The Cry of the Owl is a 2009 thriller film based on Patricia Highsmith's 1962 book of the same name, and was directed by Jamie Thraves. It stars Paddy Considine, Julia Stiles, and Karl Pruner. This is the third filming of the book after the 1987 French film adaptation by Claude Chabrol and a German television adaptation titled Der Schrei der Eule also from 1987. After Robert Forrester is caught by Jenny Thierolf, the girl he has been spying on, he becomes the victim of her manipulative advances. The disappearance of Jenny's fiancé Greg after a fight with Robert marks the beginning of a series of dangerous and ultimately fatal incidents.