If writer-director Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature debut “The Watchers” had been a zippy rom-com or a breezy musical or a fast-paced action movie, we might not have felt it necessary to note from the start that Ishana is indeed the daughter of "The Village" and “Old” filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. But given this is a moody, supernatural-themed, psychological horror thriller filmed in saturated earth tones and featuring a twist-upon-a-twist-upon-a-twist of an ending, we cannot avoid mentioning this.
Alas, though Ishana Night Shyamalan demonstrates promise as a filmmaker and delivers some arresting visuals and a few good jump-scares, “The Watchers” feels like a cover band's take on familiar scary movie themes, with little in the way of original ideas or surprises.
Dakota Fanning, a seasoned and solid actor who has made sullen characters something of a specialty, plays the downbeat and cynical Mina, an American who works in a rather sad pet store in Galway and is tasked with transporting a rare golden parakeet to a zoo near Belfast. Dubbing the bird “Darwin” (the first of many references to themes of evolution and the changing nature of humans and perhaps some other entities), Mina sets off on the road trip, at one point stopping for gas just outside a vast and dense forest, yet somehow managing not to notice a board plastered with dozens upon dozens of fliers with “MISSING PERSONS.” I mean, there are so many MISSING PERSONS we have to wonder why the authorities and the international media haven't descended upon this site to investigate what’s what.
A short while later, Mina’s car mysteriously breaks down, and this being a horror movie, Mina immediately decides she and Darwin the Golden Parakeet will abandon the vehicle and venture deep into the woods to look for help. (You’d think a well-paved road would be a better option than a dense and forbidding forest with signs proclaiming, “Point of No Return,” but here we go.)
The car seemingly disappears. A giant flock of CGI birds swoop through and above the trees. A mysterious, white-haired, older woman (Olwen Fouéré) materializes and urges Mina to run as fast as she can and follow her into a cement-and-glass fortress known as “The Coop.” Inside the Coop and understandably freaking out, Mina learns that the older woman is a former history professor named Madeleine, who introduces her to the troubled and twitchy Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) and the kind but clearly distressed Ciara (Georgina Campbell).
As Madeleine explains, they’re all trapped here as the prisoners of The Watchers, an unseen but often heard tribe of changeling-type creatures who live in the woods. Every night, they must stand in front of a two-way mirrored wall while the Watchers study them. During the day, they can roam the woods, but they must not go into any of the underground bunkers where the Watchers rest (apparently, they’ve got some vampire in them) and they must return to the Coop by sunset, or they’re goners. As for escape, that’s impossible. There’s no way out.
We get the occasional flashback filling out Mina’s back story, and some heart-pounding sequences when the Watchers get agitated when anyone breaks the rules. (Gradually, the creatures themselves are revealed. As is the case with so many horror films, the more we see of them, the less frightening they are.)
There’s a lot of talk about Irish folklore and fairies and such, but I found myself wondering about some of the details of life in the Coop. There’s just a bucket for waste, no shower, no running water, yet everyone still looks pretty fresh and clean. They have to hunt for food, but the pickings seem slim. Also, when a big discovery is made within the coop, you can’t help but wonder how this particular thing wasn’t unearthed months ago.
We’re reminded of elements from films such as “The Blair Witch Project” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and TV series such as “Lost’ as Madeleine keeps explaining the rules, and Mina tries to rally Daniel and Ciara to think for themselves and join her in trying to do something, anything, to circumvent the rules and find a way out.
With an overwrought score pounding home every new development, “The Watchers” has a late reveal that should come as a surprise to no one, followed by ANOTHER twist, and then at least one more, until it was hard to keep count. The more we learn, the less it all makes sense, even for a movie about folklore creatures operating the worst Airbnb ever deep in the woods.
