Dynasties exist in many professions. Some of us grow up where there’s no succession, but for those who do the results can be good or bad. I’m thinking in the case of Ishana Night Shyamalan it will be good. I have not seen all of her father’s (M. Night Shyamalan) movies, but I have seen enough to know that he has considerable talent but also sometimes misses the mark. That’s how I felt after watching The Watchers. I didn’t know anything about it (including the director or producer) before watching it, but it only took a few minutes before I began thinking that it was like an M. Night Shyamalan movie. Like his work, it is intelligent and intriguing. And, in this case, slightly off the mark. The story is a little too involved, and it may remind you, at points, of The Village (one of my “old movies” that I still go back to now and again).
Mina, an American living in Ireland (never explained), gets trapped in a forest from which no one ever escapes. Now, this part was scary if you’ve ever been lost in the woods. (I have been and it still terrifies me.) These woods are inhabited by watchers—in lore known as fairies, among other things. A professor had built an observation deck where he could observe them. The only way a human can survive in the woods is to stay inside the shelter at night. Mina’s car breaks down in the woods and she comes across three survivors. They’ve been in the shelter for months and since it is in the middle of the woods, there’s no way to get out before sunset, when the watchers will kill you. Now, were the premise of the film to have stopped there, it might well have been believable. The story gets deeper (but I won’t give it away), straining credibility a bit. There’s a little too much stuffed in.
Does it work as a gentle horror movie, in the Night Shyamalan vein? Yes. It satisfies an itch on a rainy or snowy weekend. Too many unanswered questions remain. The setting in Ireland makes sense, given the fey plot, but why is Mina American? Why is her sister Lucy also in Ireland (or is that just a visit at the end)? Why didn’t [redacted: spoiler] watch the video long ago and leave? Other questions also haunt. Why did the professor shoot twice? And more. Still, having a source of Night Shyamalan movies for more than one generation seems like a good thing to me. And I really want to know where, exactly that forest is located in real life, with or without the fairies.