'The Watchers' review: Dakota Fanning leads Ishana Night Shyamalan's disjointed directorial debut
The horror film from M. Night Shyamalan's daughter is a perplexing trip to the woods
Ishana Night Shyamalan is following in her father's footsteps with her directorial debut filmThe Watchers, starring Dakota Fanning, based on the book by A. M. Shine. Blending fantasy with classic thriller elements the film (produced by M. Night Shyamalan) is a story of a journey gone wrong, set in Ireland.
A horror with twists and thrills are to be expected in a film with two Shyamalan family members on the project. But a promising premise feels too disjointed to live up to its potential.
The Watchers release date: June 7
Writer: Ishana Night Shyamalan, based on the novel by A. M. Shine
Director: Ishana Night Shyamalan
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Olwen Fouéré, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan
Runtime: 102 minutes
What is 'The Watchers' about?
Fanning plays Mina, an American who works at a pet shop in Ireland, tasked by her boss to transport a rare bird to a buyer. On the way her car breaks down and in a classic horror trope, Mina is stranded in a forest.
After getting lost among the trees as it's getting dark, Mina ends up in a sort of bunker in the middle of the woods, where she meets Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan). As Madeline explains, they're in "The Coop," and the creatures that they hear at night are the Watchers, who observe the humans in the structure at night.
There are also rules that must be followed: they can't go into the forest at night; they can't wander too far away in the woods; and they can't go into the burrows, where the Watchers stay during the day.
As you'll likely expect, Mina is particularly motivated to get out of the forest, which sets us off on the journey to discover how The Coop came to be and who the Watchers are.
Is 'The Watchers' worth watching?
Writer-director Shyamalan does effectively create a sense of fear and dread in how we see this forest that's spacious, and also particularly confining. But that seems to come without enough regard to development of the characters in The Watchers.
Throughout the story we learn bits and pieces about Mina and the other individuals stuck in The Coop, but these nuggets of information feel disjointed and never fleshed out enough to really feel emotionally attached to the characters.
There are flashbacks to Mina's childhood that reveal this trauma she experienced as a child, but even those feel stumbled over in terms of getting into the mind of our lead character, and understanding how she's been impacted by the events of her past, and present. We don't need all the answers in films, but we need some sense of understanding who we're watching.
Additionally, the beginning of this film and final moments, following a twist (that we won't spoil) that reveals the lore behind Watchers, feel completely disconnected. That results in any of that suspense you built up just vanishing. It's like we've stepped into a separate story.
That's not to say the ending doesn't have shock value. In the screening we attended there were a number of gasps. There are also some interesting elements Shyamalan adds to this story, like a nod to reality TV shows like Love Island that gives the story an interesting evaluation on voyeurism. But it's hard to look past how uncoordinated this story feels as a whole.
