With the film hitting 4K UHD I finally had the chance to catch up with Ishana Night Shyamalan’s debut film, The Watchers. While some may cry Nepotism, the film itself was financed and produced by her father M. Night Shyamalan and then sold to the studio after the fact, which not only took the risk off the studio, but allowed them to see what they were getting before deciding to pick up the film. This is the second project this year I’ve seen with the Shyamalan progeny, the first being Trap with Saleka Shyamalan in front of the camera as Lady Raven and now this film with Ishana Night Shyamalan behind it.
Based on the 2021 Folk Horror novel of the same name by A. M. Shine, The Watchers follows a young American woman, Mina (Dakota Fanning) who 15 years after her mother’s death is still running away from the fact, which landed her in Ireland working at a pet store. While attempting to deliver a bird to a zoo near Belfast, she happens upon a mysterious road, where the patented M. Night Mystery box closes in on our protagonist Mina and the audience. When her car breaks down in a forest, she is forced to search for assistance which lands her in a bizarre inescapable scenario.
Every night Mina and three other captives are forced to seek refuge in a mysterious concrete bunker called the “Coop”, hiding from unseen creatures called “The Watchers”, who watch their prey through a giant double sided mirror that makes up one wall of the enclosure. Unlike her father’s last film, Ishana is trying to say something here. The folks who find their way here are all “lost” in some respect, and the metaphor of the inescapable dreary forest that represents depression, and is layered with forcing those trapped to reflect on their sins nightly. It’s how we finally discover Mina’s past that she is forced to overcome, to earn her way out.
While the film does have a heart, my only real issue is we don’t get to see what landed the other captives on this path. Not getting too much into spoilers, but once it’s revealed what they’re facing, there’s another layer of metaphor there with humanity itself, facing its past, which I thought was the interesting sort of thematic thread to weave into our protagonist‘s story. So Mina’s basically forced to confront her past while confronting humanity’s past and I feel like that offers up some interesting readings of the film rather than just trying to come up with a novel twist. There is also a third meta layer with a fictional reality TV show, so as you have the captives being watched, as they’re watching a big brother-esque reality show.
I caught the film on 4K UHD, and while the transfer itself is as expected for a film shot digitally and then sent directly to disk. I really think I should spotlight the disc’s use of soundscape and the film’s stunning Dolby Atmos track. Because when the group is in the concrete bunker the film’s sound field is very purposeful in its attempt to re-create that space inside your room. So what they’re hearing outside their walls is what you hear and that is very, very, very eerie and effective. Not only do you get the lows you’d sort of expect, but if you’ve got a surround set up, you’ll hear scratching in the top of your room, up the walls and in the back as the captives face the mirror with The Watchers outside. This DEFINITELY enhanced my viewing and enjoyment of the film and I highly recommend it.
The disc also has actual extras that help to educate and contextualize the world, which is always a plus. Check those out below, spoilers have been omitted in titles.
Bonus Features:
- Welcome to the Show: The Making of The Watchers
- Creating The Watchers
- Constructing the Coop
- Ainriochtán and the Irish Folklore
- Deleted Scene – Lair of Love
The Watchers was a film that definitely got me. I really dug the folk elements and how it used the horror framework to explore the psychology of these fractured characters and tell their stories. Dakota Fanning deals out a rather nuanced take on a character that evolves throughout the ordeal into the film’s final twists – I mean this is a Shyamalan film after all. But the revelations were novel enough that it kept me not only engaged, but vested in the story and its characters. It’s something that I understand isn’t going to work for some, but for me I am onboard for whatever Ishana Night Shyamalan does next.
