Review by Lauryn Angel
The Watchers is the first film from writer/director Ishana Night Shyamalan – daughter of M. Night Shyamalan – and it lives up to her father’s reputation, for better or worse.
The film stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, a shop girl in Ireland who undertakes a the task of delivering a rare bird. When her route takes her through a dense forest and her car inexplicably dies, Mina and the bird encounter an ominous creature, but are saved at the last second by Madeline (Olwen Fouéré). Madeline, Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), and Ciara (Georgina Campbell) have been living in a concrete cell they call “the coop” with a window made of double-sided glass. Every night, they explain, the Watchers come to observe, but the occupants of the coop can’t see them through the treated glass. As long as they follow the rules, they will survive. But Mina is determined to escape.
Shyamalan does a great job of creating a spooky atmosphere, evocative of fairy tales in which young women especially are warned not to go into the forest, and if they do, to stay on the path. Mina’s visit to a barrow of the others is particularly creepy, and the glimpses we get of the others in the woods reveal an otherworldly creature. Shyamalan’s pacing is good in the first half of the film, building the tension at a steady pace.
Unfortunately, the film goes a bit off the rails when it starts to explain things. I haven’t read the novel the film is based on, written by A.M. Shine, so I can’t say how much of the resolution comes from the original story, but a lot of it seems to be the sort of thing that would work better in a novel than a film. The explanation of who the Watchers really are doesn’t really play well as a film, and it was almost a little too silly for me.
But then, I much prefer a scary movie in which some things are left to the imagination, and not knowing just who or what was watching would have made this film a winner for me. As is, the film is entertaining enough for a PG-13 horror film, and I would definitely watch another film from Ishana Night Shyamalan.
