If there is one thing that is noticeable during The Watchers it’s that Ishana Shyamalan lives up to her namesake. She, of course, is the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, the man who is no stranger to supernatural plots and twist endings. Much like her father, Ishana has a great eye for eerie atmosphere and setting up an effective mood that gives a project much of its identity. This becomes the strongest element of her feature film debut.
The Watchers is always visually arresting and the mood is ALMOST enough to cover up the film’s shortcomings. You see, also like her father on occasion, Ishana’s screenplay becomes its Achilles heel. Once things need to be explained, the script doesn’t live up to the tension that the director has built and it becomes reminiscent of the weaker entries of her dad’s filmography. It almost seems unfair to compare her directly to M. Night but their styles are so similar that you can tell how much she was inspired by him. With The Watchers, she inherits the best and worst of her father’s talents.
Shyamalan does the most with the film’s generic horror movie opening which is familiar but effectively shot and executed. An unknown man is seen rushing through the forest of western Ireland. He’s in a hurry to not only help someone but also because he needs to find shelter before the sun sets. There’s clearly something in the forest and it doesn’t want the man to leave or it could very well be hunting him. While keeping track of the light that begins to fade with the sunset, Shyamalan does a good job of building tension as the audience senses time is running out for him. Ultimately it does and the growling that the viewer hears in the background indicates that something horrific is hiding in the forest.
Based on the novel of the same name by A. M. Shine, the story follows Mina (Dakota Fanning), an American woman who has deep-rooted problems that she has no problem telling a parrot that occupies her at a local pet shop that is settled near the forest that is sure to be the place of some kind of evil. Mina’s parents died 15 years prior and it’s something that she hasn’t quite gotten over. The parrot in question needs to be taken to a zoo in Belfast and it’s a task that Mina volunteers for.
As Mina drives through the forest from the film’s opening scene, her car breaks down and when she takes a few steps into the forest, it disappears without any real explanation. Mina soon finds herself coming across a woman named Madeline (Olwen Fouéré) who implores Mina to follow her into a bunker deep in the woods before SOMETHING in the forest catches them. Mina and Madeline are in the bunker with two other individuals, Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) and they find themselves all stuck in this spookily strange structure being watched on a nightly basis by whatever is stalking them in the forest.
The scenes in the bunker offer up the best of The Watchers. Shyamalan does a great job of getting tension out of the mystery and ambiguity of the situation. What’s in the forest? Why is it watching them? It’s all effectively staged and it goes a long way making the audience uneasy as to what’s coming and why. The bunker is also visually interesting with its ceiling-to-floor one-way mirror that acts as one of its walls that also creates an eerie doubling effect that Shyamalan utilizes on more than one occasion. There is also the added layer of terror regarding what might be looking in on our would-be victims. It offers up an escalating mood that, at times, is genuinely chilling.
The problems come when the film needs to explain itself and how you feel about the movie will come down to if you buy all of its explanations. Once the narrative feels the need to give the audience the WHY, all of its ambiguity and mystery is washed away, which strips the film of the power that elevated many of its earlier scenes. Not only that, but Shyamalan’s script hits the audience over the head with explanations, maybe fearing that viewers needed every single moment to be taught to them as if it were a tutorial. By the time the third act kicks in, it all feels anticlimactic because it is a rehash of exposition and mythology that came before it. This leads to two climatic showdowns that do little to elevate the tension and even then, there are more explanations that only further dilute the film’s momentum.
While all of the actors do solid work, this is Dakota Fanning’s show from start to finish. The actress has never been one to be a weak link and she offers up another stellar performance that makes Mina interesting beyond what is on the written page. Fanning does a good job of suggesting more is going on beneath the surface, indicating something more as to why she hasn’t gotten over the death of her parents. If there is a reason to stick with The Watchers beyond its effective setup, it’s Fanning’s performance.
The Watchers’ build-up is almost so good that you can forgive the film for its shortcomings. Anticipating what all of the revelations mean only takes the audience so far and with a setup like this, the explanations need to be enthralling enough to keep the viewer invested. Sadly, Shyamalan over-explains her story as if she doesn’t have full confidence in it. Once The Watchers plays its full hand, it becomes a mystery that wasn’t quite worth unraveling.
The Watchers is now playing in theaters nationwide courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
The Watchers' build-up is almost so good that you can forgive the film for its shortcomings. Anticipating what all of the revelations mean only takes the audience so far and with a setup like this, the explanations need to be enthralling enough to keep the viewer invested. Shyamalan over-explains her story as if she doesn't have full confidence in it.
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Hello! My name is Gaius Bolling: movie, TV, and pop culture junkie! The industry has been in my veins since I was a kid and I have carried that on through adulthood. I attended Los Angeles Film Academy and participated in their screenwriting and editing program. From there, I have learned to hone my skills in the world of entertainment journalism. Some of my favorite genres include horror, action, and drama and I hope to share my love of all of this with you.
