The Watchers

Audience expectations of the Shyamalan family are generally high; despite some poorly realized efforts, M. Night has released several excellent, mind-shattering projects, including The Sixth Sense, Signs, and Split. Those expectations now extend to his daughter, Ishana, and her feature directorial debut, The Watchers. Unlike her father’s work, The Watchers does not necessarily feature an insane twist or genre-defining reveal. Still, the more subdued nature of its odious and grand trek into the depths of Irish folklore makes for a promising—but altogether imperfect—freshman film project.

Based on A.M. Shine’s book of the same name, The Watchers introduces us to Mina (Dakota Fanning), a young woman with a troubled past who must take a rare bird from the pet shop where she works to a zoo. The journey, set in the picturesque Irish countryside, takes an unexpected turn when Mina and her chatty bird find themselves stranded in a mysterious forest. There, she meets Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), Ciara (Georgina Campbell), and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), who all shelter her in the Coop, a single-room bunker in the heart of the forest designed to withstand the mysterious Watchers.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Here is where the story that the film’s marketing efforts pushed picks up. The Watchers only come at night, seemingly intent on observing the four humans for reasons unknown to the latter party. But there are rules that the Coop’s occupants must follow to avoid angering the mysterious, unseen creatures of the forest, and naturally, Mina is keen on attempting to break those rules. Her character becomes effectively fleshed out as a disobedient shapeshifter, for lack of a better term, who carries much guilt over her mother’s death and likes to embody different personalities to mask her true self.

This theme of identity and generational trauma plays nicely with the film’s ultimate subject matter and expanded lore, but at the risk of spoilers, you will just have to trust me on that. The other characters are far less complete but unique enough to warrant their existence by delivering tension via conflicting personality traits. This four-way dynamic and the group’s efforts to escape the seemingly magical forest and its voracious occupants provide the crux of the film’s first two acts, which are the highlight.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Intrigue and suspense are built up well in that timeframe, which viewers expect—and are most often given—from a Shyamalan. Little by little, the action reveals more of the forest’s and the Watchers’ secrets until the film’s climax tells all. Before this pivotal point, the atmosphere is unsettling, and while the big reveal is pretty interesting, the final act loses some steam.

What the Watchers are and their motives are a refreshing take on a marginally familiar subject in film (mainly horror), which is nice to see for a theatrical release with these kinds of names attached. As alluded to earlier, there is a concentrated effort to introduce a significant history and continued worldbuilding to this subject matter, which is rarely present in similar works. However, with that focus on lore during and after the reveal, Ishana’s Watchers features some drudging exposition, and there is a somewhat jarring tonal shift.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

In the film’s finale, The Watchers almost feels like a different work of fiction altogether. It discards the attractive and mistifying concept of its first two-thirds and looks to build upon the extensive worldbuilding to produce a much more optimistic conclusion. The shift is flawed; while it is certainly bold, it fails to carry the same fascination generated in the opening sequences. Therefore, the Watcher’s second big reveal becomes less effective, and interest quickly wanes.

The Watchers is a decent first effort from the daughter of a truly original filmmaker, which makes it exciting to watch for her future endeavors. Some will be disappointed in the actualization of its intriguing concept, execution, or some other aspect, but the movie is mostly well-crafted when and where it counts.

The Watchers is now playing in theaters nationwide.

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