Directed by: Ishana Night Shymalan
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Olwen Fouere, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan
M. Night Shymalan's daughter Ishana delves into the filmmaking foray with her adaptation of A.M. Shine's novel. The movie is a gloomy enterprise heavy on atmosphere and light on an engrossing story. It is also part of a new trend in movies in which American characters live in places like Ireland and Australia (The Fall Guy, Arcadian, Anyone but You). Why? Tax credits of course.
The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, a troubled woman who works at a pet store by day in remote Galway, Ireland. Her mother died fifteen years ago and she still hasn't come to terms with this because she blames herself. Mina also avoids her sister's phone calls. One day, Mina is driving in a dense forest where she breaks down and seeks shelter. She finds a lone dwelling, but it is also occupied by three other people who have been there for some time. They are Madeline (Fouere), the most senior of the bunch and who lays out the rules to the others, Ciara (Campbell), who came there with her husband who is now lost, and Daniel (Finnegan), the most recent denizen before Mina arrived.
What rules? At night, the four must line up so the "watchers" can view them. No one has seen these creatures, but Madeline gives Mina instructions such as: You can go out during the day, but be home by nightfall, etc. Are these watchers or gremlins? No matter. There are deadly consequences if you don't follow the rules. We soon see the watchers and they look not unlike the aliens from A Quiet Place, but they also resemble the humans they see every night. The Watchers borrows from other horror movies like A Quiet Place or Us to the point the big revelations seem recycled.
The Watchers tries to provide Pasts for the characters, but there just aren't any reasons to care about them. Like her father's films, Shymalan builds the story on suspense but it tests our patience. Horror movies lately have become deadly dull and tough sledding to sit through, with generic titles like The Watchers which sound like dozens of horror movies we've seen previously and are virtually indistinguishable from the others.
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