EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE // A FILM REVIEW OF “THE WATCHERS”
BY MATEO MORENO
M. Night Shyamalan is, depending on who you ask, either a master of the spooky horror/thriller or a man chasing his masterpiece The Sixth Sense with less and lesser works. His daughter Ishana (who has done some great work on the Apple+ streaming series Servant) is ready to tackle the genre her father has made a bundle out of. Her feature length spooky tale is THE WATCHERS, based on the A.M. Shine novel of the same name. Dakota Fanning plays Mina, a young woman living in Ireland. She works at a pet shop and is asked to deliver a parrot to a customer for her boss. Once deep inside the woods, her car suddenly breaks down and she seems to be stranded without a soul in sight. That is, until she spots one. A woman named Madeline (Olwen Fouéré) runs away from her so she runs towards her and ends up inside a bunker with her and two other strangers (Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan). It’s not incredibly large inside but is matched up with a huge window where they have to stand and be seen every night. By what, you may ask? “The Watchers,” some sort of creature that comes out at night and studies them, with rules they must abide by. The unnerving premise sets up a what could be a very intriguing tale.
Frustratingly, it never quite matches its initial premise of spookiness. It’s unnerving for much of it but the characters stay mainly one-dimensional and the scares don’t really come. That’s not to say it’s not interesting. The third act may frustrate some, but I found it pretty cool, all in all. Just not scary. Dakota Fanning is quite good as the troubled American trying to find a way to move forward. Her character gets the most backstory and she does a lot with silence. The rest of the ensemble cast all give solid performances and once we do see the creatures, they don’t disappoint: they are quite creepy. And the design of the film is as well. I just wish the rest of the film kept up with the directors original vision.
GRADE: B-
BASED ON THE NOVEL BY A.M. Shine SCREENPLAY AND DIRECTED BY Ishana Night Shyamalan STARRING Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, Oliver Finnegan, Alistair Brammer, John Lynch NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE