The Watchers

If I were to rate only the idea and the mythology around The Watchers, it's would be a clear five-star affair, and even though it's rather underdeveloped and very, very superficially sketched, it's clear that the idea could use a lot of attention in the future. But with the film as a whole, my rating dropped from average to 2* towards the end, and I was so outraged by the finale that I was tempted to go 1*. M. Night Shyamalan's daughter didn't have a very good debut as a director, as the whole thing doesn't make the slightest sense upon much reflection, the rules of the film are made up on the fly and, even though the central motif is more than good, the execution as a whole is almost painful. The first half reveals where the plot is going to go after Mina gets lost in the woods, and we just pray that the many, many questions the film asks in the first half will be answered as well. To my delight, everything was answered and I have to say that the first encounter with the Watchers was atmospherically dense and almost groundbreaking. Unfortunately, as the mythology is further revealed, our initial joy fades away as we find that as the conclusion draws near, the filmmakers are pulling things out of thin air, the characters behave in extremely illogical ways, and the whole set boundaries around what the Guardians can or can’t do are being torn down according to the director's mood. A film that had the potential to usher Ishana Shyamalan into the world of cinema as the queen of horror turned into a piece of trash that even discerning viewers will sadly not remember in a week's time, a dramatically botched result given the expectations. (06/10/2024)

Maybe something interesting could be made out of the mythological motif, but as it stands, it's unfortunately completely moronic. There's a moment where two characters argue about whether it's the lost husband or a monstrous shapeshifter banging on their door, with the character who wants to open the door responding to the well-meaning advice to first ask the banging subject some question that only the husband knows the answer to with a – no kidding – confused "Why?". This is just one of many times I raised my eyebrows in surprise, thinking that I must be missing some level of humour that the film is riding on. Because no one would seriously write that, would they? The second favourite moment occurs when the characters find a plethora of documentation that could quite obviously give them a clue as to what is really going on and how to get out of there, and one of them boredly turns around and utters something along the lines of "well, we don't have to see this". (07/02/2024)

To my surprise, this actually turned out okay. Shyamalan's daughter definitely beats Cronenberg's daughter. Visually, the film is on par, I liked the mythology around the guardians. The first encounter with them has a great mysterious atmosphere and visually it is properly engaging in short nicely photographed creatures. The film also offers some interesting twists – the one at the end got me quite a bit. It held my attention and that's what counts. It's more of a mystery horror tale than proper horror, and there are quite a few horror sequences, but I found the idea as a whole to be fine and imaginative, so I'm happy to give it 4 stars. 7/10. (06/29/2024)

"Two things are crucial, Ishano. To have a story, ideally with a touch of mystery, that keeps the audience on edge, preferably original and with twists that shock as a bonus. And then to infuse it with an atmosphere that dispels any viewer doubts about what we're serving up. — "OK, I'll check out After Earth and The Happening on my phone, it'll be fine, dad." Damn it in the Irish woods, I’m not sure if fighting accusations of nepotism by copying the style of my biggest inspiration and then siphoning elements from the last decade of horror drawing on Celtic folklore and some from Lost is the best approach. Georgina Campbell could almost move into supernatural forests by now... (07/24/2024)