- Release Date: 14/06/2024
- Cast: Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, Oliver Finnegan, Alistair Brammer, John Lynch
- Director: Ishana Night Shyamalan
“The Watchers” features engrossing storytelling and rich lore, capturing the audience’s attention with its striking visual and auditory elements
Based on the acclaimed book, The Watchers by AM Shine, the film tells the story of Mina (Dakota Fanning), a selfish and somewhat angry girl required to deliver a parrot to a client somewhere in Ireland. While on her way, she gets lost in an enchanting but sinister forest and soon finds herself fighting for her life against something lurking in the woods. She is rescued by Madeline (Olwen Fouéré) and offered refuge in a coop in the middle of the forest. Mina quickly learns that this is no ordinary coop—it is the only place of safety in a forest that is home to mythical creatures that aim to kill every human that it can find after sunset. What is it in the forest that is killing humans? Why and how is the coop safe? Who are Madeline and the others inhabiting the coop and how have they survived for so long? These are just some of the questions that drive the narrative of “The Watchers”, the debut feature film of Ishana Night Shyamalan (daughter of M. Night. Shyamalan).
I watched nothing more than the trailer for this film before walking into it, and I feel you should do the same. If possible, avoid the trailers too. The less you know about the plot and the characters, the better your movie experience will be. This film reminded me of “The Village”, one of M. Night Shyamalan’s most haunting and yet most frustrating films, primarily because of the final reveal of the plot. I was keeping my fingers crossed, praying that “The Watchers” doesn’t take a similar path and that the final reveal of this film would not disappoint me in a similar manner to “The Village”. I wanted the fear factors and the beings behind the happenings in the forest to be real and supported by a solid background and impressive lore. Thankfully, that was exactly the case here.
The film gets to its basic plot point quickly. The entire story is restricted to a portion of the forest, the coop, and the interactions between the four major characters. This helps maintain focus on the proceedings and allows for a detailed exploration of the lore and the rules of the world that are introduced to us through the story elements and interactions between characters. It also allows for the four characters to be developed in such a way that we understand their backgrounds just enough to grasp their actions and expressions, adding further authenticity and power to the interpersonal drama. This also enhances the tension and fear elements, as we start caring more about the characters with each passing minute. This is a result of the connections that Ishana Shyamalan is able to build between her characters and the audience, made possible by the fantastic performances from the ensemble cast and Shyamalan’s matured approach to the storytelling and how she reveals the backgrounds of her characters.
Dakota Fanning leads from the front. I do not understand why she is not among the top 10 actresses or stars (as we call them) in Hollywood. She is beautiful, acts her heart out in every role, and approaches characters fluidly enough to play any role convincingly without her own self and persona weighing heavy on the character that she is essaying. If this isn’t superstar material, I don’t know what is. She carries the entire film on her shoulders without making it too obvious that she is. She is as potent in delivering the portions that inform us why she does certain things and why she is a certain way, as she is effective in delivering the parts drenched in thrill, drama, and discovery. She shares an uncomfortable chemistry with the rest of the cast, and we understand why that is so. It isn’t easy to be nuanced and subtle about your dislike towards another character in a story, but she pulls it off effectively. A large chunk of the film’s fun and thrill results from her expressions and how her character approaches the story and interacts with the different characters and elements.
Georgina Campbell and Olwen Fouéré play the next two most important characters in the film, and they bring their A-game to the fore. They play very different characters forced into a unique situation, compelled to trust and depend on one another. This leads to some interesting interactions between them and other characters which the two actors bring out wonderfully well. The way these two characters are dealt with at the end of the film enhances their impact, further justifying the hard work that Campbell and Fouéré put in to ensure that the characters were rendered with nothing left to desire.
The storytelling of Ishana Night Shyamalan is engrossing and on point. There isn’t a single dull moment in the entire film. The threats and scares in the film are all genuine, and I didn’t feel cheated even once throughout the runtime owing to there being no false alarms or jump scares that were elevated by loud noises that had nothing sinister to back them up. Though primarily a thriller, the film borders on being a horror movie and a pretty good one at that. The background of the story and the lore associated with the characters are rich and add a lot to the intrigue and fun of the narrative. Credit for this aspect of the film must be given to the author of the original novel, AM Shine. However, condensing the entire story into a 90-minute narrative that was gripping and easily intelligible was no easy task, yet Ishana Night Shyamalan pulled it off with élan. The approach to the screenplay and the pacing of the film made the narrative even more engaging and dramatic culminating in an exciting climax.
I was enthralled by the cinematography of the film. It has that trademark look that I have come to associate with M. Night Shyamalan’s films, and the inspirations for Ishana are obvious. The good news is that it all works well for her story. The night scenes might have been a tad too dark and could have benefited from more innovative lighting, but there wasn’t anything else in the visual palette to complain about. I loved the bright colours and the moody feeling that the visuals brought to the story. The cinematography is further elevated by a wicked sound design. The creatures that lurk in the forest are not seen for a large chunk of the film. Their presence is stamped on every scene with the kind of sound that asserts their presence. The sound design throughout the film is so unnerving that it is bound to get under the skin of the viewers.
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“The Watchers” is nothing extraordinary, but it is entertaining and intriguing enough to merit a view on the big screen. This is the kind of film that you need to see in a theatre with the best possible sound to absorb everything the makers intended. Any attempt to watch it on a smaller screen, which has become the norm, will lead to missing a lot of nuances in the film and resulting in a diminished impact.
Rating: 3/5 (3 out of 5 stars)
The views expressed in this article are that of the reviewer and do not reflect EastMojo’s position.
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