JP Nunez
From the moment I first heard about The Watchers, it’s been one of my most anticipated movies of the year. Not only is it the feature directorial debut of M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter, but more importantly, I found the premise just about irresistible. It’s a folk horror monster mystery, and literally every part of that description is right up my alley. So naturally, I just had to see this film as soon as I could, and now that I have, I’m happy to say I had a pretty good time with it.
The Watchers was written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, and it stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, and Oliver Finnegan. The movie is based on a novel of the same name by A. M. Shine, and it follows a young American woman named Mina who gets lost in an expansive Irish forest. She can’t seem to find her way out, but luckily, she comes across a small group of people who offer her a place to stay.
However, there’s a catch. The land is home to some mysterious creatures known as watchers, so the residents of this safehouse have to be indoors by nightfall. Otherwise, the watchers will tear them to pieces. But once inside, these people are totally safe, and the monsters just look through a big two-way mirror and study them.
Right from the get-go, The Watchers had me pretty hooked. The film opens with someone apparently being killed in the woods, and the place is pretty damn creepy. Even during the daytime, it’s covered with a dense fog that gives it a somewhat gothic feel, and when the sun goes down, that effect increases exponentially.
What’s more, the trees in this area are mostly bereft of leaves, so even when nothing particularly frightening is happening, you just know there’s something wrong here. It almost feels more like a cemetery than a forest, and that vibe carries over quite effectively into the rest of the movie.
But hands down, the best horror in The Watchers involves the creatures themselves. When they descend upon the safe house at night, you can hear them attacking the place and trying to get in, but you can’t see them. And as any genre veteran can tell you, that combination is cinematic gold. It creates a genuinely Lovecraftian sense of dread and uncertainty, so you can’t help but wonder just what these things are, what they want, and what they’re truly capable of.
In particular, there’s a scene where someone knocks on their door and pleads to be let in, but Mina and her companions disagree about what they should do. Is there really a person out there, or is it just one of the watchers trying to trick them? They simply don’t know, and the tension increases with every second that goes by.
All that being said, there’s more to The Watchers than just fun horror. The film also features a number of slower, more character-driven moments, and to be frank, they’re not nearly as good. On the whole, Mina and her crew simply aren’t all that interesting, so when the scares recede into the background and the characters’ personalities come to the fore, the movie starts to drag quite a bit.
To be fair, one of these characters, an older woman named Madeline, is pretty good. She’s played by Olwen Fouéré, and if you’re familiar with this woman’s work, you won’t be surprised to learn that she gives the best performance in the film. As usual, she just exudes a sense of confidence and authority, so you hang on her every word. Whenever Madeline opens her mouth, you can’t help but sit up and listen, so she’s always a joy to watch whenever she’s on screen.
However, she’s just one character, so she can’t carry the movie by herself. The rest of these captives need to pull their weight as well, but unfortunately, they’re not up to the task. Everyone else in The Watchers is merely adequate at best and annoying at worst, so whenever the movie tries to be more than just its premise, it almost never works.
Next, let’s talk a bit about the titular watchers themselves. I’m not going to give anything away, but I will say that they’re a fairly mixed bag. When these creatures are at their most monstrous, they’re pretty cool. Their designs are awesome, and when they go on the attack, they can be utterly terrifying.
But as you learn more about them, they start to lose a bit of their horrific charm. See, the initial mystery behind them is just as intriguing as the marketing makes it out to be, but once you find out what they are, it’s a bit of a letdown. Granted, the truth about them and their intentions isn’t bad, but they don’t nearly live up to the expectations the movie gives us.
On top of that, The Watchers also anthropomorphizes these creatures in a very literal way (you’ll see what I mean when you watch the film), and that didn’t really work for me. I much prefer their more animalistic side, so when they become a bit humanized, they lose a lot of the edge that made them so fun in the first place.
Last but not least, we have to talk about the ending. As expected, this movie has a twist, but it’s incorporated into the story in a weird way. Usually, we expect a twist to be a single scene at the end that changes your entire understanding of the film, much like The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable, but here, it’s way more than that.
It’s the last 15-20 minutes, and there are multiple reveals, culminating in an odd finale that comes across more like an unnecessary coda than an integral part of the plot. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad in itself, so on the whole, I still enjoyed this part of the movie. But it feels rather tacked on, so it doesn’t hit nearly as hard as I wanted it to.
Along with the mediocre characters and the weaker aspects of the monsters, that poorly integrated ending keeps The Watchers from reaching its full potential, but thankfully, none of that completely ruins the experience. On the whole, the intriguing mystery and the fun horror handily outweigh the film’s flaws, so even though I found The Watchers to be a bit of a roller coaster ride, it never got so bad that I checked out entirely. It’s an auspicious debut for Ishana Night Shyamalan, and I’m excited to see her learn from her mistakes here and come back with an even better sophomore effort.
The Watchers is playing in theaters right now.
