by Jeff Alan, Contributing Writer
The M. Night Shyamalan legacy grows with his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan, in the new thriller The Watchers. After making her TV directorial debut with several episodes of her father’s Apple TV+ series, Servant, Ishana is given the reins of a big budget feature film starring Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, and Oliver Finnegan.
Completely removed from her twin sister after grappling with the tragic death of her mother some 15 years previously, on a drive through Ireland’s coast, Mina (Fanning) takes a turn into the deep woods, and her car breaks down. When she takes the journey on foot as night begins to fall, she loses sight of her car and begins to hear strange things in the woods, just as a woman, Madeline (Fouéré), beckons her into safety by way of a small building in the middle of the forest, with two other inhabitants: Ciara and Daniel (Campbell and Finnegan). They inform her that they have been trapped in the woods for months and months without the ability to leave, and that at night, they must stand on display in front of a one-way mirror taking up the length of the room for the mysterious creatures that lurk outside the building they have dubbed “The Watchers.” From there, Mina learns more about her other inhabitants, the Watchers, and the mystery that surrounds them, leading to surprising revelations and a mystery that only they can solve.
Ishana definitely takes a lot of inspiration from her father and chooses a directorial debut that stays in the family name’s wheelhouse. Psychological thrillers seem to be their party trick, but this film doesn’t really end up being the same kind of thriller that her father’s films end up being. The Watchers starts how most M. Night movies do, by setting up an interesting but vague position for the protagonist to get acclimated to. But as the movie goes on, the thriller doesn’t get much more intense, or even scary, given the subject of strange creatures only coming out at night to stalk its prey.
Without giving away any spoilers, by the time the film reaches its last act, it becomes less of a thriller and a scary film, but more dramatic and supernatural than anything else. The mystery is a little farfetched (even for a Shyamalan film) to the point that I even found myself thinking, “I wasn’t expecting this to be taken here,” which isn’t a bad thing, but it wasn’t exactly what I had hope for in this instance.
The acting is for the most part serviceable. Having not seen Dakota Fanning in much as of late besides the Ripley Netflix series, which I think she is perfectly fine in, she may be the lowest in terms of her performance. She’s emotionless through a lot of the movie, even through some of the more intense scenes, so it doesn’t look like she is straining much in terms of acting. The other three leads are actually doing the more interesting performances. We know Campbell can be solid in horror movies given her work in Barbarian, and Finnegan and Fouéré give pretty solid performances for their particular characters.
Besides those key factors, The Watchers doesn’t have much else going for it. In terms of a feature film debut, it’s not bad for Ishana to take on, albeit with some subpar acting and a feeble and outlandish story in the second half. It is shot and edited very well, like all Shyamalan moves are, which I think is enough to garner it some praise. I’ve seen Ishana’s work on Servant, so I know she has the chops to give us something good in her career, but being her first film out of the gate, it’s not the best start. But then again, there are very few directors who knock it out of the park on the very first try. I say, give her another film or two and we could have some fun watching her work in the future.
Rating: Low Side of Just Okay
The Watchers is currently playing in theaters
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