THE WATCHERS: Shyamalan Delivers Folk Horror for Her Directorial Debut

After becoming stranded in a forest alongside several others, a young woman discovers they’re not alone, as something unknown lurks in the night. Written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan and based on a novel of the same name, The Watchers is an intriguing film with solid potential, even though it takes some peculiar shifts.

Mina (Dakota Fanning) has escaped her past to Galway, where she works at a local exotic pet store. When her boss asks her to drive a rare bird to a client, she finds herself on a long drive through a rural area of Ireland. When her car abruptly breaks down, she—and her new bird companion—become lost in the dense forest.

As night falls, she discovers that others are also lost. Their only option for shelter is a strange concrete box with a two-way mirror. They tell her it’s for “The Watchers”, an ominous night-dwelling group, to observe them. However, as she struggles to believe this bizarre explanation, she’ll uncover something unlike anything any of them could have imagined.

Unless you read the source material, The Watchers had an air of mystery. They held back from showing too much in the trailers, so the film maintained a strong enigma around the plot. The final product does a great job of not unveiling anything too soon, which helps to hold your curiosity as you wait for the truth to come to light.

With this being Shyamalan’s feature directorial debut, I thought she did well capturing the atmospheric and disorienting setting while building subtle suspense, especially in the first and second acts. She has certainly picked up a few tricks from her father, but above all, she has an impressive vision.

While I enjoyed her direction, I didn’t find the dialog to fully translate well from book to screen. While I’m not versed with the book itself, the way characters spoke just felt slightly off; sometimes feeling stilted. And that’s felt a bit in the finale as well.

As the film heads into the third act, it takes a turn that’s not quite a Shyamalan-famed twist but more of a genre pivot. While billed as a supernatural horror film, I didn’t find the film to satiate that. Staying clear of spoilers, the film does shift into a fantasy folk tale. Which I don’t entirely dislike, but perhaps without the context of the book, it felt a little jarring.

The ending also feels like it lacks closure. It left as though it was opening the door to a sequel, which made sense after discovering a follow-up to the original novel is due later this year. But that doesn’t make for a satisfying ending for now.

But despite those few issues, I found it to be entertaining. It has a great concept and style that lend well to its folk horror roots; which is the better way to describe the film. While the reveal was very unexpected—and I’m still on the fence about it—I loved the overall design and idea behind it. Plus Fanning delivers a solid performance and carries the story well, as do her cohorts Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouéré.

While not perfect, I think Shyamalan will certainly be a filmmaker with a promising future and The Watchers is a solid film to have as her first entry.

The Watchers is in theaters now