The Watchers is the debut movie for Ishana Shyamalan. Following in her father’s footsteps, she enters the world of horror cinema with an interesting concept and an array of ideas of her own, laying her career on firm foundations.
Being a depiction of a book, penned by A.M Shine, Ishana’s hand has somewhat been forced by the original source material. Despite this leashing of her creativity, she has brought with her some interesting ideas and The Watchers is, in my opinion, a commendable debut. Will it be enough to bring her out of M. Knight’s shadows?
With a mixed bag of audience reviews out in the wild, I decided to put pen to paper and share my thoughts surrounding this refreshingly unique title.
If You Go Down to the Woods Tonight
The focal point of the movie is a depressive young woman who stalks a nearby Irish pub, seeking companionship from those of the opposite sex. In a bid to step out of her melancholic mindset, she dons a wig and assumes an identity separate to her own. Mina is full of self-hate as she blames herself for the loss of her mother, an event our protagonist has been unable to come to terms with.
During one of her usually humdrum working days, she is asked to take a rare bird to a client who lives in the back of beyond and many miles away. Seeing this as a distraction from her own being, Mina hastily agrees to the job.
During her road trip (bird in tow), she passes through a dense but picturesque woodland, where her car and phone mysteriously begin to malfunction before completely breaking down. Mina leaves her car behind and sets out into the forest looking for help, when the daylight begins to fade she happens upon a cabin, when the door is flung open by a strange woman beckoning her inside and telling her to run, if she values her life.
Entering the cabin, Mina is met by three strangers who introduce themselves as Madeline, Clara and Daniel and tell her that there are creatures living in the woods that come out of hiding when the sun goes down. When darkness falls, one wall of the cabin reveals a two-way mirror that allows the mysterious creatures to watch them like some creepy variation of the hit reality TV show, Big Brother.
All has been going considerably well for the long-time occupants of ‘The Coop’ but Mina’s arrival spells disaster as she breaks the all-important rule of venturing deep into the burrows where the creatures reside during the daylight hours.
The Watchers – A Somewhat Enjoyable Movie that Tends to Drag Out
While there is quite a lot to enjoy in the 102-minute runtime, The Watchers has a penchant for digging its heels in, making the movie drag out way too often and for way too long. There’s no reason to add meaningless fluff to pad out the time and as we’ve seen so often, it’s turned a lot of otherwise solid movies into boring yawn-fests and The Watchers is yet another movie to join this statistic.
Summary – The Watchers in a Nut Shell
The premise behind The Watchers is, to be fair, refreshingly unique. In a world of cookie-cutter horror movies, it’s always nice to see new ideas and the occasionally wandering off of the beaten track. With that being said, there’s little point in fresh plotlines if they’re going to be delivered in such a drawn-out and often tedious fashion.
All-in-all, The Watchers is worth watching. However, it’s doubtful that it will be one that stays in your memory for very long to come.
