Year of Release: 2024
Director: Ishana Shyamalan
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, Oliver Finnegan, John Lynch, Alistair Brammer, Siobhan Hewlett, Anthony Morris, Shane O'Regan
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
Watch it on Amazon
Synopsis and Review
"The Watchers" is Ishana Shyamalan's feature directorial debut, after directing a few episodes of the show "Servant", which was produced by her father, writer/producer/director M. Night Shyamalan. "The Watchers" is an adaptation of the book by A. M. Shine, and follows the story of Mina, an American immigrant who works in Ireland. Mina has estranged herself from her twin sister, and blames herself for the death of her mother years earlier. Mina gets tasked in delivering a valuable golden conure parrot to a zoo near Belfast, but while en route her car breaks down. She ends up stranded in a forest, and eventually gets lost. She eventually finds an older woman by the name of Madeline, and follows her to a bunker type of place, where she meets two other people, Ciara and Daniel. She quickly learns they've been there for quite a while, and that at night they have to stand in front of the glass wall that occupies all of the bunker, as there are mysterious entities outside, by the name of "The Watchers", who observe what they're doing. If any of them are caught outside at night, they'll be killer by "The Watchers". They perform the ritual every evening. Mina tries to escape, but soon realizes that the situation is much harder than it seems. As tension increases amongst the group itself, Madeline finally explains that the Watchers are in reality shapeshifting fairies, who are attempting to learn and mimic human behavior. The Watchers attack the bunker, and the group discovers a hidden door on the floor, which leads them to an underground shelter. Turns out the bunker and the shelter were devised by a professor who wanted to come to the forest to study the creatures. In one of the video recordings he left behind the professor explains how to get out of the forrest unharmed. While the three women manage to escape, Daniel is killed by a Watcher. Mina goes back to the professor's University to destroy some of his notes, but uncovers some information there about his intentions, and Madeline herself.
One of the biggest issues with "The Watchers" is the fact that once the mystery behind the creatures is unveiled, much of the dread and tension that had been built, loses much of its effectiveness. Ishana Shyamalan manages to build an ominous scenario, one where the unseen menace lurks in the dark, it's seemingly everywhere, and apparently unbeatable. This hinting and powerful suggestion that is illustrated is far scarier for the viewer, more so than anything that is represented subsequently which is what eventually occurs. Part of the problem lies with the fact that the storytelling feels rooted in something authentic and menacing for those characters, but the tilt of the narrative towards the magical or supernatural presents itself unexpectedly and not entirely married with the narrative thus far. The characters sadly don't have much specificity or particularity to them, which also doesn't bode well for the narrative itself. Mina is a rather bland individual, the same going for everyone in the bunker, whose background or even motivation is barely explained or hinted at. The lack of attention and detail to these characters renders this feature less impactful, since they're all forgettable, and though their initial challenge, the permanence on the bunker, was indeed disarming to these individuals, we never get to understand how that challenge impacted their sanity, their well being, or even their journey. These tonal and character issues make this film that much more difficult to embrace. The cast doesn't do much with these characters, with the only highlight going to the presence of Olwen Fouéré, who is slowly crafting this type of Lyn Shaye persona to herself in these type of horror/thrillers. The cinematography from Eli Arenson is stunning, as is the production design from Ferdia Murphy. It's not an ostensibly bad film, just not a particularly good or memorable one.
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