The Watchers review.
Who watches The Watchers? Someone looking for a middling time.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
The Watchers
Directed by Ishana Shyamalan
Written by Ishana Shyamalan
Starring Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, Oliver Finnegan, Allstair Brammer and John Lynch
The Watchers Review
It’s difficult to review Ishana Shyamalan’s debut feature film without addressing her famous filmmaking lineage. Her father, M. Night, serves as a producer, after all. Which immediately leads one to a simple question. Is this movie going to have a twist? It’s unfair, of course. M. Night’s last movie (Knock at the Cabin) didn’t rely on a twist. It was let down by marketing…but certainly didn’t hang on a big twist. The Watchers, on the other hand, has been aided by marketing. The trailer gives us a glimpse at an intriguing premise…hinting at big suspense and a big reveal. Unfortunately, the trailer makes it look better than it actually is.
To get it out of the way…yes, Virginia, there is a twist. It’s not earth-shattering like The Sixth Sense or even as fun as Unbreakable. In fact, it’s likely that you figure out what’s going to be revealed part way through the movie…even if you recognize that it makes no sense given the information you are working with. Instead of making the twist the point of The Watchers…Ishana Shyamalan uses it to add to the film’s created lore. It all makes sense eventually…but it’s obscured somewhat by the story’s purposeful withholding of knowledge.
What we know is that something odd is happening in the woods of Ireland. Mina (Dakota Fanning) ends up trapped in a seriously dangerous piece of land off the beaten path. She is taken in by three people living in a strange structure with a large mirror serving as one of the walls. The creatures who inhabit the forest come out at night to observe the humans behind their glass enclosure. The building is located too far from the edge of the woods to make it out during daylight. And…you really don’t want to be outside once night falls.
The Watchers employs an old favorite technique…it gives its characters a set of rules. Don’t turn your back to the glass. Never open the door after nightfall. Never ever enter one of the holes found in the woods. The great thing about rules in horror movies is that they are always there to be broken. Breaking them comes with dire consequences. The watchers only allow the humans to live because they are following their rules. Mina is a lifelong rule breaker. You can probably guess what will happen next.
The Watchers has a few things going for it. The cast is universally strong. It’s also a fine-looking picture. The central mystery is interesting enough until you learn more about it. There are some diminishing returns on that. It also has more than its share of issues. Ishana has inherited her father’s too patient approach to storytelling. There simply isn’t enough here to justify a feature length film. Perhaps if the suspense had worked…or the characters were given more interesting backgrounds to delve into things wouldn’t feel so padded out.
Mina is the only character to receive much backstory attention. At least for the first two acts of the story. The movie tries to layer in a trauma story for her. It never really holds despite Fanning’s best efforts. Things play out slowly…while we wait for the shoe that is obviously going to drop. To its credit…it doesn’t drop the shoe you would think. At least not at first. Instead of making a twist out of its premise…The Watchers digs deeper into it. Layering added lore throughout the second half of the movie. In slowly dissolving the mystery…the movie erodes its most intriguing chip.
There is a bit of fun had with it all in the third act. The twist comes…again, it’s one you probably pick up on during the movie…and The Watchers again drills down on the lore of the story instead of making a show out of it. For a premise literally build around entertaining viewers…The Watchers is stunningly unconcerned with doing so itself. The movie falls flat in nearly every attempt at building atmosphere. It’s rendered almost impossible the more we learn about what’s going on outside the walls of the structure. Some setting changes help pick things up a bit by the end. It’s not enough to reengage you any further than those intriguing trailers put out by the marketing department.
Scare Value
Ishana Shyamalan inherited more than just her dad’s penchant for twists in the climax. Unfortunately, that includes the ponderous style of filmmaking that can lead to some boring movies. The Watchers doesn’t have enough going on to warrant pulling up a seat for the show. While the cast is universally strong…there is nary a fright in sight. Confusing stretching things out with building suspense must run in the family.
2/5
The Watchers Link
Now in theaters – Fandango
