The Watchers

            Even though he has had some up-and-down success in recent years, I have been a long-time fan of M. Night Shyamalan. As the writer and director of some truly great movies (Sixth Sense, Signs, and Unbreakable to name a few), I was drawn to this to see if his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan, could also make a compelling and thrilling movie. The answer is partly yes. Stick around to see what I mean but for those who haven’t seen it yet or don’t want to get spoiled, this is your official spoiler warning. Don’t worry, I won’t watch you, but you are welcome to check out some of my other reviews here. For everyone else, proceed forward and enjoy.

            The Watchers is the feature film directing debut by Ishana Night Shyamalan and stars Dakota Fanning and a few other actors and actresses that I was not familiar with. Fanning plays Mina a loner who works at a pet store when she gets tasked with bringing a bird to someone that requires a bit of a drive. While driving through a forest, her car breaks down, along with her phone and radio. She leaves the car behind but takes the bird so she can go find some help. After a few short moments, she turns around to reveal that her car is now gone.

            She sees someone and follows them until they eventually make it to a building. Reluctant at first, the older lady opens the door and lets her in. Up till this point, it was pretty much the Dakota Fanning show. With her being the primary character seen on screen. Now we get to meet the full cast of characters that make up the inhabitants of “The Coop” (the name of the building that they are in).

            There is Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), Ciara (Georgina Campbell), and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan). All three of them have been trapped in the woods for quite some time. No one knows exactly how long, but it’s in the months for sure. They are allowed to go outside during the day, but at night, they have to lock themselves inside The Coop, so some unidentifiable creatures can come and watch them for some unknown reason. At first, Mina doesn’t believe Madeline and thinks she is making it all up. So, she breaks one of the rules and climbs down inside one of the holes where the watchers supposedly go through the day.

            I can’t stress enough how thrilling and edge-of-your-seat the first part of this movie was. It very much gave me a vibe of something Ishana’s dad would create. But then it seems to get to a climatic part early, and then the story draws out a little bit further in a way that is not quite as compelling. Eventually, enough rules are broken that the watchers try to get in. While this is happening, they discover a hatch in the floor that takes them to a long abandoned underground bunker. There they learn all about what is going on and that there is a boat that they can use as an escape plan.

            The whole underground bunker scene is when the story takes a turn, and we start to learn more about what the creatures are and how the building was created. Some guy named Kilmartin is behind all of this and it’s very disturbing, to say the least… But I also felt like it was too early in the movie for us to be learning what we were. So, the next morning, the group makes a run for it and almost escapes before nightfall when Daniel falls victim to their tricks and is killed and taken by them. Mina, Madeline, and Ciara narrowly escape and seemingly return home.

            Honestly, you could quit watching here and leave happy with a short thriller movie. But, if you sit through the end, you are faced with a backstory that is less than fulfilling. When Mina goes to the college to go through Kilmartin’s research, she finds that the creatures are some sort of ancient fairies that were trapped and imprisoned by humans and now they are trapping humans to watch them, so they can copy them.

            Oh… and guess what? Madeline was one the whole time. This does explain why some things happen, but completely doesn’t make any sense why other things do. But the most confusing thing is why Madeline was going to kill Mina until she mentioned something about the possibility of there being other fairies in the world, so she just flies away from her. I honestly didn’t get that part at all. Why leave her alive at that point? Then why would she constantly come back as a little girl and keep watching her too? Maybe I missed something, but the ending just didn’t do it for me.

            Overall, Shyamalan did an honorable job on her first big job and definitely has some of her dad’s skills, but overall, the ending lacked quite a bit as did the character development throughout the film. I believe that this is still worth a viewing, but just don’t go into it with high expectations. The great start and thrilling cinematography in the first half put this movie at a solid 6 out of 10.

            So, there you have it for this week’s movie. Have you seen it yet? What is your opinion of it? Do you think Shyamalan has a future in filmmaking or will she always be in her dad’s shadow?

            Thanks, and join me here again next week for another mindless movie review of some sort.