The Watchers

At some point in last year's movie discussions we are going to have to talk about the sheer amount of nepo babies that were actually fantastic in movies. Because there were quite a few. But they were not just in them, they were making them. The Watchers is the directorial debut of Ishana Night Shymalan, yes M. Night Shymalan’s daughter. Her father produced the film and she both wrote and directed it. Now M. Night’s movies are rather hit or miss, and he often shits the bed in the third act, so is this a genetic trait? Or will his daughter actually follow through, let’s find out.

Eh this already feels like a Shyamalan movie and dear god, that is not a good thing. We started in the middle of the conflict, as in the big scary thing, now theoretically that is a good idea. We are often taught as writers to start in the middle of the action but there was no tension. We relied heavily on mystery and panic but it just kind of fell flat. I felt nothing.

Then have Dakota Fanning as the main character. A truly delightful girl but not really a top notch actress. She gets stuck in these woods and ends up stuck in a house with 3 strangers.

The premise is that they are stuck in this “coup” and they are essentially subjects. The watchers arrive every night at sunset to watch these people stand in a window until sunrise. It's already super weird which is pretty on brand for this family.

Ooof the camera work is rough, it SCREAMS first college short film. That’s not great.

They try and investigate the forest and what is watching them and they end up uncovering a bunch of toys and a bike, and some other random things. Mina also sees a very creepy hand of something or someone.

This old lady is very aggressive. I get that she is trying to be protective and who knows how long she’s been out there but she is so hostile.

Oh it's your fault your mom died…I see. Yeah normally when the main character feels a heavy amount of guilt for a parents death it's not normally their fault, but like…yeah really seems like it was 100% on her.

So the Watchers are these super creepy humanoid/wendigo looking things. Super slender man, ultra creepy. This old lady is a folklore professor who came here willingly like an idiot. Ah classic Shyamalan exposition dump. I said Wendigo, but really they are changelings they are pretty similar. In their natural state they are long and disgusting, but they can both mimic voices, changelings are just a little more literal. The Watchers are watching so that they can become the people they are watching.

It's trying to be a supernatural kind of thing. But heres the thing, whenever a story involves something rooted in folklore like that you are automatically getting compared to Supernatural. Can you do the creature as well as a network tv show did over a decade ago? Until Dawn was amazing and was a great Wendigo story, this…not so much. As someone who literally studies a lot of folklore because I’m also a writer and that’s just part of the job, their take on changelings is just boring and there is too much exposition dumping. I am a firm believer in no expo dumps in act 3 of your film and yet here we are.

They try to do a twist ending, but it was just so weird. And not consistent at all with the lore that they were spouting. It also just kept the damn story going on too long. If this twist was going to happen, it would have needed to happen earlier. Like on the boat when it was already too late.

This movie should have ended with them sailing away on the boat, like that's literally all the story needed. The fact that it just kept going is the biggest problem with Shyamalan films. Literally 20 minutes too long. I am not sure why they do this, she absolutely learned how to screenwrite from her father but her dads not really good at it, so that 's not great. This is very much what happens when nepo babies who don’t study or work on their own make movies. Now to be fair the source here is not exactly gods gift to the film industry. 5/10 is being generous but that’s what I will give it.