Is The Watchers Worth Watching? Well…

By Redmanwriter on June 21, 2024

Sommerleigh Pollonais, Horror Head Writer

The Watchers is one of those movies you're best going into knowing as little as possible. One of the few trailers I've allowed myself to watch, the draw for me here was the atmospheric look of the film as well as a cast that included genre mainstay Dakota Fanning and Irish actress Olwen Fouere who jumped on to my radar from her appearance as an older Sally Hardesty and the only fun aspect of 2022's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Her ethereal looks are a perfect fit for a story (The Watchers) that veers into very unexpected territory.

So, let's see what I can tell you without getting into spoilers.

I'm gonna say...conjoined twins? Yeah, that's my guess

A young woman named Mina (Fanning) gets lost in the woods after her car shuts down and she heads out on foot to seek help. As a fog descends on her, the already isolated woods become nightmarish and Mina finds the darkness closing in on her until she spots the odd sight of a building with a glass wall and a woman standing in the doorway, urging her to run. Mina makes it to the strange shelter and there she meets three others; Ciara (Georgina Campbell), Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) and the woman who guided her there, Madeline (Olwen Fouere) who explains to Mina her new circumstances. They are all prisoners of the woods where they can go out in the day but at night they must return to the shelter and stand before the glass wall to be observed by unseen entities known only as The Watchers.

While they go the lazy route of calling The Watchers horror, the movie plays more like a thriller with a dab of horror thrown into the mix. The mystery of who the watchers are and whether or not they exist at all is the most compelling aspect of the story, while the cinematography and atmosphere of paranoia and isolation works (for a time), in carrying the admittedly slow pace along.

What the hell is M. Night Shyamalan doing here? Oh crap, we're in a horror movie! Or at the very least, a thriller

Where things pick up is in the reveal of who and what our protagonists are up against and I'll readily admit if I had a hundred years, I would never have guess where this was going. It almost feels like an entirely different movie starts up in the third act and if not for the sincerity of the actors' performances, this could've easily been one of the more ridiculous conclusions I've seen in a movie this year. It is the directorial debut of Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of twist-loving director M. Night Shyamalan who produced the film, so no one should be surprised by a crazy plot twist.

I won't spoil anything for you other than to say some may hate it while others may give The Watchers points for going in a wholly original direction, exploring themes we don't see a lot of in the genre. Personally, I fall a bit in column A and a bit in column B, but I'll take an original idea over another lazy rethread any day of the week. Check this one out for yourself and see if The Watchers is worth watching to you.

Sommer's Score: 6 out of 10

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Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge-Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I'll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes. Double Tap Baby! Read More