|
|
THE WATCHERS
Director: Ishana Night Shyamalan Cast: Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, Oliver Finnegan, Alistair Brammer, John Lynch MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:42 Release Date: 6/7/24 |
|
Review by Mark Dujsik | June 7, 2024 Mystery and uncertainty are usually more intriguing and frightening than reality. As a case in point, here's The Watchers, which establishes a creepy atmosphere around the fact that nobody in the story really knows what's happening around and to them. The truth is eventually revealed, of course, and while any answer to this puzzle would likely be disappointing, the one presented by the movie is especially so. This is the debut feature of writer/director Ishana Night Shyamalan (the daughter of famously/notoriously twisty filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, who serves as a producer), who certainly makes an impression in terms of visual style and her command of setting up tension. The opening scene, for example, is one of those generic horror-movie introductions, as some random character, who may or may not be seen again, is rushing through some forest in the western part of Ireland. He's in a hurry for two reasons. First, he's trying to help someone, which we know from the loud murmurs he offers in between heavy breaths while running. Shyamalan's screenplay, based on the novel by A.M. Shine, has an unfortunate tendency to have multiple characters explain what they're doing, why they're doing it, and, once the answer to the movie's central question is put forth, the sometimes-elaborate back story that goes along with those decisions. The story even gives our protagonist a parrot as an excuse for her to say her tragic past and her feelings aloud. Sure, the bird does offer a few mimicked words in response, but as a conversationalist, the parrot here is just the most blatant of the filmmaker's shortcut devices. Oh, there's still that guy in the woods. The second reason he's in a rush is because he has to find some kind of safety before the sun sets. There's something in this forest—some things, actually—that doesn't want him to leave or is hunting him for some reason. It's a fairly standard scene for the genre, obviously, but it's immediately eerie in the way Shyamalan keeps tabs on the fading light and gives the sense of a maze of trees that makes every step forward look the same. Inevitably, the poor guy fails in his mission, and the low growling in the backdrop gives a good enough reason for him to start screaming in terror once the thing or things have him. Back to our main character and her convenient parrot. She—meaning the human—is Mina (Dakota Fanning), an American woman who works at a pet shop some miles from that forest. As she tells the bird, her mother died 15 years ago, and she hasn't gotten over it for reasons that are later shown to us without any avian assistance. The parrot needs to be taken to a zoo in Belfast, and since Mina has nothing to do but work and mope and play dress-up while going out to pubs at night, she volunteers. In those woods from the prologue, her car suddenly stops without any explanation and seems to disappear as soon as she takes several steps deeper into the forest. Before any of this can register, a woman named Madeline (Olwen Fouéré, who has recently become a welcome go-to for horror fare) calls out to Mina with some helpful advice. She had better follow her into a bunker in the woods, or those things, rasping around and screeching behind them, will surely get her. This section of the plot is tantalizing in its ambiguity and staging. The mystery should be apparent: Who or what is in this forest, and why do they make a nightly habit of watching Mina, Madeline, and two other people, Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), stuck in and close to this strange structure in a spooky forest? Shyamalan doesn't quite seem to care about the answer for a while, which makes a lengthy stretch of the story a fine excuse to continue building the unsettling mood and creating some effective suspense sequences. It also means, unfortunately, that, when the answers come, the movie pummels us with them and immediately stops caring about matters of ambiance and tension. The third act becomes an anticlimactic recitation of exposition and myth, deflating the plot's minimal momentum toward, not one, but two climactic showdowns with even more explanations in between them. The movie definitely doesn't succeed once it's in that mode, but the build-up to the revelations remains enticing. There's the setting of the woods, which somehow feels both expansive and claustrophobic. There is also the matter of the bunk itself, which has a ceiling-to-floor one-way mirror as one of its walls, creating an unsettling doubling effect on stillness inside, as well as heightening the insecurity of what might be on the other side looking in. A trip down into the creatures' burrow, too, makes good use of shadow without forcing a cheap scare. The Watchers, then, is an occasionally effective exercise in building both mystery and tension. As soon as the first part of that disappears, the second immediately follows. Copyright © 2024 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
Buy Related Products
|
(for violence, terror and some thematic elements)
