It’s not all bad, but I wished The Watchers tied together better. A monster movie with diluted monster energy, the movie wanders along, yanked forward by solid captives and a couple noteworthy scares. Ishana Night Shyamalan should keep attempting to make movies like this because I’d imagine most will achieve greater success.
The Watchers is a movie with two acts of pure adrenaline and intrigue, ones that use enough genre tropes to keep you engaged and lead you along for a third act that’ll hopefully tie things together. But then the film ventures in to absurdity in its third act and makes you roll your eyes.
Needles to say, The Watchers is directed by a Shyamalan. But this time, it’s actually M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan, who uses many of the same techniques as her father to craft an original, occasionally fascinating directorial debut that falls just short of the finish line.
And although the entirety of The Watchers’ plot can feel absurd when recited, there’s enough buy-in from the straight-faced first two acts to suggest a director who knows what they’re doing – and for what it’s worth, I’m still interested to see how Ishana Night Shyamalan follows this film up.
But it has an incredibly mishandled ending with story reveals that don’t feel all the consequential, and a tone that is off-putting considering what comes before it.
The movie follows Mina (Dakota Fanning), a young artist that becomes stranded in a whimsical, immaculate forest in western Ireland and finds shelter with a group of three strangers who claim to see wild creatures stalking them during the night. As they unravel the origins of the creatures, they find that mythical entities may be at play.
Fortunately, there are a few worthwhile performances to hold you over while the plot develops. Dakota Fanning is quite good acting as the cypher into this ridiculous world. Of the three strangers – Olwen Fouéré, Georgina Campbell, and Oliver Finnegan – Campbell stands out the most as she’s also given the widest range of emotions to display during the runtime.
There are also some solid scares and a few stylistic flourishes that make me think Ishana could have a few decent movies up her sleeves if she can recover from a movie that didn’t seem to sit well with critics or audiences alike. The absurd premise, mixed with a clumsy conclusion, doesn’t amass to something that’ll live on for years to come, but if anyone could emerge from the rubble of a middling genre project that didn’t garner much financial support, it would be a Shyamalan.
It’s not all bad, but I wished The Watchers tied together better. A monster movie with diluted monster energy, the movie wanders along, yanked forward by solid captives and a couple noteworthy scares. Ishana should keep attempting to make movies like this because I’d imagine most will achieve greater success.
Rating: 5/10
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
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