I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t feel like M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter Ishana should be directing movies of her own. Not out of concerns about nepotism, but, like, weren’t we just anointing her dad as “the next Spielberg” not too long ago? This might be his most unnerving achievement to date: creating the sort of existential despair that can only be inspired by the realization of just how quickly time has passed by. Anyway, I digress: I was actually hoping to avoid the obvious familial connection here, but THE WATCHERS is proof that the younger Shyamalan has entered the family business in more ways than one. A cerebral, claustrophobic thriller, it’s not so much a chip off of the chip off of the old cinematic block so much as it’s several chips cobbled together as part of a familiar, familial pastiche. Adapted from A.M. Shine’s novel, it blends the intimate, crucible-of-horror thrills of SIGNS and OLD with the woodsy menace of THE VILLAGE in a story haunted by death, despair, and childhood trauma (take your pick of M. Night productions here). And like many pastiches, it struggles to find its own voice and vibrancy—while there’s plenty here to confirm that Ishana Shyamalan has the chops to follow in her father’s footsteps, it also leaves the sinking feeling that she could use more inspired material.
Trauma lingers over Mina (Dakota Fanning), an American woman working in an Irish pet shop. Haunted by the memories of her dead mother and estranged from her twin sister Lucy (we can only assume mom was a Dracula fan), she dons different identities for her nights on the town, a feeble attempt to escape the doldrums of her empty life. One day, she’s tasked with taking an exotic parrot to a customer in a location so remote that her entire car goes on the fritz — complete with the radio inexplicably displaying the runic alphabet — upon entering a forest. Stranded, she wanders the forest in search of help until she stumbles upon “The Coop,” a bunker that seems to be the home for a trio of fellow strays: Ciara (Georgina Campbell), Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), and the especially enigmatic Madeline (Olwen Fouéré). The latter lords over The Coop with a set of rules that are meant to appease The Watchers, a group of mysterious creatures haunting the woods and treating the group as captives under observation. Mina soon grows restless with the routine and begins to bend the rules in order to understand The Watchers, who are predictably none too pleased about her temerity.
For the first half of its runtime, THE WATCHERS hinges on an obvious intrigue: just who are the title characters and what are they really up to? We know they’re likely up to no good thanks to an opening scene that finds them terrorizing a man who’s dared to venture into the woods, but the particulars need to be sorted out. Shyamalan does a nice job of building suspense and tension during this stretch, particularly in the way she carves atmospheric menace out of this despairing wilderness. The utter desolation and isolation match the film’s somber pitch, and it’s easy to see why anyone would fall prey to the cabin fever that ultimately drives Mina to escape. Predictably, the interpersonal dynamics also start to go haywire, adding to the mounting tension that begins to boil over when Ciara’s husband (Alistair Brammer) — long thought to be lost to the Watchers — returns to the Coop’s doorstep, practically daring the inhabitants to break the rule that insists they keep the door closed at night. Shyamalan offers some sharp stylistic flourishes here when the captives deploy a camcorder outside of The Coop, giving the film a brief found footage vibe that works well with the threadbare, lo-fi premise. As the mystery unravels, THE WATCHERS gains a great deal of momentum as Shyamalan flashes brief glimpses of the title creatures building up to the big reveal.
Unfortunately, the eventual reveal lets the air out of the narrative balloon. While the answers are steeped in a cool mythology we don’t see nearly enough in the horror world, the story struggles to do anything particularly compelling with it. It doesn’t help that the script resorts to expository wheel-spinning that involves our characters watching old recordings of The Coop’s founder, deepening the mythology and giving the narrative a new direction that never feels quite as urgent as the most immediate, pressing concern: the characters’ escape from this bizarre captivity. Not to spoil things completely, but there’s an entire act that lingers beyond this that isn’t as compelling, mostly because it hinges on a predictable twist. Granted, it all dovetails nicely enough with the film’s running theme of identity, trauma, and moving forward, but it also feels so rote and mechanical as the horror degenerates into basic jolts that are ultimately offset by a sentimental undercurrent.
Of course, that sentimentality is part of the Shyamalan family DNA, and it’s nice to see that Ishana is upholding that family tradition. THE WATCHERS is nothing if not totally sincere when it invests in Mina’s tragic story, making her whole ordeal an allegory of sorts as she finds a kindred spirit in a Watcher who’s similarly in search of identity and purpose. There’s a thoughtfulness to the film’s home stretch that’s admirable enough, even if it feels a little bit like a hard left turn from the tension and dread that drives the early-going. On-screen, it feels a little slack, playing out like an extended epilogue — I have to imagine it feels more natural on the page, where you have more of a chance to invest in these various characters. While the film is superbly cast and boasts some strong performances, you’re left wishing the talent had more opportunities to develop nuanced, complex characters. They’re sketched a bit too thinly here, all of them defined by a lone character trait makes them feel a little one-note. Granted the actors — particularly Fanning and Fouéré — hit those notes very well, giving the audience just enough to invest in down the stretch.
Certainly, there’s enough here to suggest that Ishana Shyamalan has the chops to follow in her father’s footsteps. She even has a similarly wry sense of humor at times — there are some fun bits involving the parrot and a recurring gag about a reality TV show that Mina watches on loop, though I have to admit the film could have used more of that signature Shyamalan peculiarity. Ultimately, THE WATCHERS plays things a little too straight and narrow, trudging through the obligatory grief and trauma beats we’ve become accustomed to in recent years. And that’s fine — sometimes there’s something to be said for faithfully adapting a source material, allowing its original voice to shine through. But let’s hope Shyamalan walks a bit more of a crooked path and establishes her own voice in the future.
Tags: A.M. Shine, Abel Korzeniowski, Adaptations, Blinding Edge Pictures, Books, Dakota Fanning, Eli Arenson, Georgina Campbell, Horror, Ireland, Ishana Night Shyamalan, Job ter Burg, John Lynch, M. Night Shyamalan, new line cinema, Oliver Finnegan, Olwen Fouéré, Warner Bros. Pictures
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