The Watchers – A Promising But Flawed Gothic Horror Tale

Ishana Shyamalan was born to be a film director. The daughter of legendary director M. Night Shyamalan, spending so much time on various film sets before working on them herself alongside him. Testing her chops by taking a more proactive role on the Apple TV+ series Servant as a writer, director, and producer, Ishana now enters the world of film with her feature written and directorial debut, The Watchers. Based on the book of the same name by A.M. Shine, the film does a lot of right things, taking an interesting premise on paper and creating a decent ominous atmosphere around that. However, on the other side, all of that good will is squandered by poor writing that not even its strong cast, led by Dakota Fanning, can save. While the film shows plenty of potential, where it ultimately lacks is execution. Despite that interesting premise, it fails to do nearly enough with it. Putting Ireland front and center, there is beauty in between the darkness but those who are into Irish mythology and gothic folklore may get a kick out of this one. In the end, regardless of however the film fares, it proves that Ishana Shyamalan does have a future as a film director.

The Watchers follows Mina (Fanning), an American living in Ireland who still struggled following the tragic death of her mother. Working at a pet store, she was tasked to deliver a valuable bird but along the way, her car suddenly broke down and left her trapped in a thick forest. Alone with a bird and trying to make sense of her new surroundings, Mina encountered an old woman named Madeline (Fouéré). Offering assistance (and plenty of exposition), she introduced Mina to a bunker known as ‘The Coop.’ There she would find Ciara (Campbell) and Daniel (Finnegan), two others in the same predicament, though for much longer. The biggest added wrinkle, and one everyone essentially knows about at this point, is that a mysterious group of creatures, for whom the group referred to as the ‘Watchers,’ watched them through a large pane of glass in the coop every night. In defiance of the rules (having to stay in the coop from sundown to sunrise, having to stay in the light, staying away from the tunnel system used by the Watchers), Mina set out to find a way to leave a forest that seemingly worked to keep people in.

Meanwhile, Ciara, Daniel, and Madeline have backstories of their own, along with Mina, but not of them basically matter in the grand scheme. Above all else, the crux of the story focused on the ‘coop group’ and how, instead of coming to terms with their circumstances, they decided to fight back and unsurprisingly, Mina proved to be a major catalyst in that change. Not making an attempt to even try to flesh out any of the characters, the story slightly improved once it turned the tables on the watchers themselves though even in that, came a fair share of drama and infighting as that conversation was not without its predictable disagreements. Over time, that friction only worsened if only to pad the film rather than advance the story in a meaningful way as the connection between audiences and its characters was never established. As the group finally got the answers they were looking for, much of the film’s stumbles came from where it went from there. Diving deeper into the lore of the watchers while also trying to tie it back to the characters did not work. Devolving into utter silliness, a tact-on climax was the epitome of this. Leaving the door open for more, a sequel to A.M. Shine’s source material set to be released later this year may provide enough support for a hypothetical sequel.

Technical prowess aside, the best part of The Watchers is its performances. While not overly pushed by the direction or the material, they were still somewhat compelling to watch. Fanning, Campbell, Fouéré, and Finnegan have enough chemistry to keep the film’s central dynamic going but it could have been so much more had they had more to do.

At the end of the day, The Watchers is a gothic horror tale that shows signs of promise but could have been so much more, failing to support an interesting premise with a strong enough script.

still courtesy of Warner Bros.

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.