The name M. Night Shyamalan seems to be as much a blessing as it is a curse when it comes to movies he’s involved with, as the name instantly puts audiences in the mindset that they’re about to watch a film that will have some sort of twist ending, or at least a big twist at some point, and that changes how you watch a film. Watching a movie and not knowing a twist is coming is what makes a twist a twist. You catch the audience off-guard and if done properly you take a beat so that they can all gather their jaws from the floor and watch the film come to its conclusion. However, if you know a twist is coming it takes that moment away from you because your mind is always churning right from the start trying to guess what the twist will be. It can’t really be helped.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when a film review is quoted in an ad for the film with some line like, “A Twist You’ll Never See Coming!” Yeah, you didn’t see it coming because you went in not knowing it was there…now, thanks to your review/quote and it being used in advertisements to sell the movie (especially when it’s a quote on the poster or Blu-ray cover) everyone else knows there’s a twist and won’t enjoy it on the same level. That type of hype isn’t needed for M. Night Shyamalan, as his name is synonymous with twists by this point, whether they be good, bad, or so predictable that they probably only qualify as a twist because Shyamalan has his name attached to the project.
The Watchers is no different, with M. Night Shyamalan producing, and his daughter, Ishana Shyamalan, making her directorial debut. It’s clear that this is a movie that’s focused on the eventual reveals more than it’s worried about telling a captivating story with intriguing characters. It’s based off the Gothic horror novel, The Watchers, by Irish novelist A.M. Shine, and while I’ve only read a sample after finding out the movie was based on the book, I can tell you that you learn more about one of the characters in the first few paragraphs than you do about any of them throughout this entire movie.
That’s the biggest issue the film has, is that there’s just so little reason to care about any of these people. The story takes place in an Irish forest that’s said to not be located on any map. Once you find yourself within it, you’re trapped. Your car will shut down, you’ll find yourself in a maze of trees, and there’s just no going back. Our protagonist Mina (Dakota Fanning) works at a pet store and is asked by her boss to take a parrot to a zoo located a few hours away. She leaves the next day and finds herself daydreaming about her haunted past, and when she snaps out of it she’s in the woods, no longer on the country backroad she was taking and her car has lost all power.
There’s a way you can have characters get points across to the audience without awkwardly having them talk to themselves, or if they do have to talk to themselves there are ways to do it that sound a bit more natural than anything done with this script. Mina always sounds like she’s explaining what’s happening when there’s no need. When her car breaks down she gets out, gets the parrot from the backseat and says, “Someone has to live around here, guess we’re walking,” or something along those lines. They walk for about a minute before she’s spooked by the woods and says, “Let’s go back to the car,” only to turn around and – there’s no car! Thankfully, because we can’t see this and to cut away any suspense, Mina says, “Where’s the car?”
This happens time and time again with her before other characters are introduced and it’s always awkward. The night before this trip through the country happens Mina dresses up and tells the parrot that she’s going out for the night. She goes to a bar with a wig on, some guy sits next to her and she tells him she’s a ballerina named Caroline, clearly just looking to escape her own reality while forming some sort of fleeting connection. We transition from the bar to the next day where Mina is putting the parrot in her car and heading out to the zoo. She looks in her rearview mirror and tells the bird, “It’s just something I do sometimes. Dress up like someone else,” yada, yada…I’m paraphrasing, but why is she randomly telling the bird this the next day? It’s clearly being done for the audience’s benefit, but that’s really talking down to your audience, as it’s not hard to follow what she’s doing without her flat out explaining it in such an unnatural way.
It doesn’t get much better once she meets up with the other three characters in the film, as they all just constantly drop exposition or randomly bring up things about themselves in ways that are supposed to add some depth but just feel incredibly forced. Mina meets up with this trio when night is about to hit and the eldest, Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), tells her she has five seconds to get inside this bunker or she’ll be killed. Mina rushes in and is told to stand in front of a window, which they can’t see out of as it’s just a mirror on their side at night; however, on the other side are the Watchers.
Madeline explains to Mina that the Watchers want to do just that, watch, and do so all night. If you go outside at night they’ll kill you, but they’re safe to hunt and scavenge within a certain boundary during the day when the Watchers are hidden away in their burrows to avoid the sunlight. It’s somewhat inconsistent in terms of why the Watchers are okay to simply watch them while on display in the bunker, while also incredibly keen to kill them without a second thought if they’re outside. There’s a time when the Watchers get angry and almost break the glass, but stop. Why do they stop? Basically, because if they didn’t there’d be no movie, but if they’re so interested in watching it’s rather bizarre that they’d be so quick to destroy the only stage around, not to mention those on it who were unlucky enough to fall into this trap.
The other two characters are Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), who are as paper thin as horror characters can be. It takes almost the entire film before Daniel blurts out his backstory in some random attempt to give him an ounce of depth. I feel like the novel had to have done all the characters more justice, which makes sense given the format; however, the injustice done to all of them here just hurts the movie across the board.
There are two reasons to be invested in this film: the mystery of the forest and the characters. When the characters aren’t remotely interesting, that just leaves you with the mystery, and the mystery is hard to care about because we don’t care about anyone involved in it. Everything about The Watchers just feels disjointed and plods along, feeling like it overstays its welcome even at what should be a fairly reasonable 102-minutes. Even as an introductory horror film for younger audiences I just can’t recommend it, as any suspense is killed by poor pacing and dialogue written and delivered in the most contrived way. This movie might be full of watchers, but you shouldn’t be one of them.
4K Blu-ray Video and Audio Review:
The film at least often looks great with its 2160p/HDR10/Dolby Vision visuals. The forest looks as daunting as it should when revealed via drone shots, and the bunker has the proper eerie tone that contrasts nicely with how deathly black the forest would be during the night. The characters, sets and wardrobe are all showcased in great details, and it does just about everything right from a visual standpoint for the film to work – if it were a better film.
The Dolby Atmos mix does the job to the point where you can’t really fault it anywhere. There’s enough surround sound scares, predictable or not, that work well enough. The score does its best to add tension, as does the mix as a whole, but again, the script just doesn’t pull its weight and because of that everything is pulled down with it.
Special Features:
Welcome to the Show: The Making of The Watchers – We get a 9-minute featurette that some of the cast and crew, including Ishana Night Shyamalan and her father. They talk about the making of the film, what it was like working with Ishana, and the film itself.
Creating The Watchers – Here’s a 5-minute featurette about the VFX and design of the creatures in the film.
Constructing the Coop – This 6-minute featurette sees M. Night and Ishana both talking about the set alongside production designer Ferdia Murphy. We also get to hear from the novel’s writer, A.M. Shine about seeing his works come to life.
Ainriochtán and the Irish Fairy Folklore – This is a 4-minute featurette that sees the cast and crew talk about various legends and myths found within the film.
Deleted Scene – We’ve got an almost 10-minute scene from the made-up reality show Lair of Love, which Mina finds on DVD in the bunker and watches to the point of memorization as the months go by.
Disclaimer: A review copy of this Blu-ray was sent to me to cover in honest and truthful fashion.
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents The Watchers. Written/Directed by: Ishana Shyamalan. Based on the novel by: A.M. Shine. Starring: Dakota Fanning, Olwen Fouéré, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, Alistair Brammer, John Lynch. Running time: 102 Minutes. Rating: PG. Released on 4K Blu-ray: Aug. 27, 2024.
About Brendan Campbell
