Ishana Shyamalan’s Debut is DOA

Our protagonist in The Watchers, an American expat named Mina (Dakota Fanning), gets thrust into a beautiful mystery that lacks the complexity and depth to pay off in any exciting way. Unseen forces trap Mina and a few other characters in a cabin deep in the Irish woods under penalty of death or worse if Mina and company step out of line. Mina and her new companions are there to be observed, studied, and watched. With such a great premise, it is perplexing that this film was so dull.

 

This is Ishana Shyamalan’s feature debut, produced by her father, M. Night Shyamalan, which carries Shyamalan DNA in multiple ways. Ishana Shyamalan has made a film, for good or bad, in the wheelhouse and spirit of her namesake. That statement is not intended to be snarky, but The Watchers barrels out of control and crashes when it needs to course correct and ascend. This trait is commonplace when looking back at her father’s precarious body of work.

 

Based on the book by A.M. Shine, The Watchers is a folk horror tale that starts off strong, very strong even. Mina is a twenty-something artist in a stalled part of her life, working, but mainly vaping, in a pet shop. The people she interacts with are never seen or in focus. She puts on a wig to go out to the pub at night. These choices were intriguing, and I was excited to see where this direction took the story. However, this character choice, or why we never see anyone’s face until later, is never explained. She gets tasked to drive an exotic bird from Galway to Belfast. Her car breaks down, and her phone malfunctions halfway through her trek, which happens to be in the middle of a beautiful thicket of Irish wilderness. 

 

Mina, with bird in tow who comically offers advice, “Try not to die,” traipses through the woods only to see that her car has disappeared upon her return. She then runs into Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), an older silver-haired woman who has been trapped in the woods for some time. Madeline ushers Mina into a modernist cabin with a giant window that is impossible to see out of at night. Rounding out the small cast are the two other cabin occupants, Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), who have been trapped in these same woods for months. 

 

The cabin keeps them alive, doubling as an enclosure. Madeline explains that the woods are home to the Watchers, who only come out at night, burrow in the ground during the day, and are very dangerous. There are rules for survival. But Mina is not interested in rules; she is interested in escape, even if it means bending the rules to find a way out.

 

Who are the Watchers? What do they want? Why are they keeping Mina trapped here? These questions come up quickly. But The Watchers, the film, sidesteps mystery and suspense for quick answers. Most of these answers come from Madeline, who dumps exposition at every turn, sometimes repeatedly. I believe my count was three or four times when it came to reciting the rules—” Stay in the light?” “Don’t open the door after dark,” etc.  

 

Most of the acting is serviceable, but nothing memorable. Fanning is not given much to do except look stoic or act defiant. The rest of the cast I did not care about in the slightest. There are some reveals that come later. In true Shyamalan fashion, the twist-ending trope rears its head here, but not in a boisterous way. The reveal is more subtle and, frankly, quite telegraphed. I would not expect anyone to audibly gasp from surprise when this film pivots with new information.

 

The shining moments are the cinematography and the score. This is a very pretty film that DP Eli Arenson has shot; it could easily double as a travel ad for Ireland. The lighting and framing in specific sequences do much of the heavy lifting with suspense and dread. Earlier in the film, the watchers are only hinted at in the background of the treeline as mysterious and indiscernible shapes. Abel Korzeniowski’s score elevates a humdrum experience into something a tad more special. 

 

The other end of the technical spectrum is the absolute dodgy CGI. When the watchers are revealed, the majority of their form resembles an AI-generated nightmare, and not in a sexy way. The cusp of great effects was there; there were definitely acceptable make-up effects in a few moments. But in the totality of the film, the better effects were the subtle quick shots of shapes and forms, allowing the imagination to fill in the gaps.

 

For her first outing, Shyamalan has something that feels more like a shaky thesis project rather than a solid professional cinematic expression. What was lost on me with this picture was two major criteria that films with a small cast, horror or otherwise, should always handle: plot holes and character development.

 

In my quest to immerse myself in the experience, I kept pulling myself out of the film due to logistical inconsistencies that needed clarification. These were mostly related to the functioning of the cabin, their food, and their power. There was also the matter of making sense of the forest rules. Once a person enters, they are ostensibly stuck, as the boundaries of the woods are flanked by signs bearing the words “Point of No Return.” 

 

Mina has some interesting backstory that had a lot of potential to be shaped into significant growth. Her backstory is hinted at briefly with a phone call to her sister and in a quick flashback. But her resolution came so quickly. When was I supposed to care about this? We are given exposition for the dialogue-heavy scenes until it is beaten into our heads. Rather than finding something interesting about Mina or her cabin companions, we get waterboarded with superfluous information. Some of this makes a little sense when the reveal happens, but the experience would have been richer if this movie dared to show us instead of tell us.

 

The sheer boredom swallows the tepid attempt at The Watchers being scary. This film crawled toward the finish line of its 100-minute run time. I cannot recommend this movie on the mere notion that I never need or want to see it again. A boring, not-scary, expository slog might be too harsh of a critique. Shyamalan has an eye for the camera; hopefully, with her next project, she will have an eye for a story.