Currently playing in UK and US cinemas, and heading to video on demand platforms shorty is the horror-thriller, The Watchers. Written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, and based on the novel of the same name by A. M. Shine, The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouere, and Oliver Finnegan, and follows the story of a group of people trapped in the woods.
In the movie, Mina is a young American woman living in Galway, Ireland. Still struggling with the death of her mother, a tragedy which happened during her youth, Mina lives a fairly solitary existence, and spends her days working in a pet store.
One day, Mina is tasked with taking a valuable parrot from her store to a zoo in Belfast. However, what should be a simple journey soon proves problematic when she encounters trouble with her satellite navigation system and ends up lost in some woods.
To make matters worse, Mina’s car overheats, forcing her to get out of the vehicle and search for help. But with no one around she decides to walk back to the car and wait for someone to come along.
On her journey back, the car appears to have vanished. Mina begins to worry, but she soon encounters a woman.
The woman takes Mina back to a concrete building in the woods, nicknamed ‘The Coop’, where she lives with two other people. They then explain to Mina they have also become lost in the woods, and have been unable to leave.
However, what’s more concerning is the three strangers are not alone. They are being watched by unseen forces, who threaten their existence if they attempt to escape.
For those unaware, The Watchers marks the directorial debut of Ishana Night Shyamalan – daughter of director, M. Night Shyamalan. Prior to the The Watchers, Ishana has worked as a second unit director on a couple of her father’s movies (Old and Knock at the Cabin), but this is her first stab as lead director.
From viewing The Watchers, it’s clear Ishana has picked up some good experience and is showing signs of potential, but as things stand with this first offering, we’re not quite there yet. While The Watchers has some decent ideas, and it certainly looks good, the film is a mixed bag at best, and at worst it’s just plain dull.
Plodding in places, and sadly anticlimactic, The Watchers is not a strong movie. Sure, it tries and occasionally succeeds, but there are far more misses than hits and this doesn’t make for a compelling experience.
The biggest problems with The Watchers is a.) it is too slow, b.) it is uneventful, and c.) it’s all very predictable. The movie also feels fairly derivative, occasionally playing like a cross between The Hole(2001) and The Village (2004), with some folklore chucked in for good measure.
Unfortunately, as both The Hole and The Village are much better films, all the way through The Watchers you can’t help but wish you were watching one of those pictures instead. You also can’t help but wish the movie was a bit more dynamic.
Occasionally The Watchers does hit the right spot, and a few brief nods to reality TV makes it feel like something interesting is on the horizon, but it never really pans out. The film is also filled with plot holes and it’s frankly quite boring.
While The Watchers conjures up the right atmosphere, it fails to excite or intrigue. The movie drifts along, mostly going through the motions, and never delivers on its set-up in a fulfilling way.
The cast (Fanning et al) do their best, but The Watchers falls flat and also falls short – essentially running out of steam with a good 25 minutes left. As horror-thrillers go, it’s neither horrifying nor particularly thrilling and you are probably best watching something else.
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