A scene from ‘The Watchers’ | Photo credit: @WarnerBrosPictures/YouTube
It would not be an exaggeration to call many of legendary director M. Night Shyamalan’s films seminal masterpieces that redefined the thriller genre. His films – which focus on characters with personal struggles facing extraordinary circumstances – along with his unique style of filmmaking that uses sound and vision as storytelling tools, have become cult classics over the years. The WatchersHis daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan’s directorial debut borrows some elements from the author’s work. But the film’s answer to whether the apple fell too far from the tree is more complicated than a mere yes or no.
In The Watchers, Ishana Night Shyamalan’s antagonists are mysterious creatures who watch people trapped in a room through a glass window. When a lost Mina (Dakota Fanning) finds herself with Sierra (Georgina Campbell), Madeline (Olwen Fouéré) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), it falls to the group of survivors to escape the forest.
The Watchers (English)
Director: Ishana Night Shyamalan
Mould: Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouére, Oliver Finnegan
Runtime: 102 minutes
Plot: A woman becomes stranded in the woods and takes refuge with three strangers, but discovers they are being followed by mysterious creatures
Shyamalan has used tropes that are neither new to fans of the genre nor to those familiar with his father’s extended filmography; we have “rules” to be followed, the creatures cannot come out in daylight, and the survivors make the silliest mistakes in the name of trying to survive. The film begins with an unnamed man being dragged into the woods by a creature, and when Mina steps into that space, the film swiftly shows them all and puts us straight in the middle of the action. After being formally inducted by the comparatively more experienced Madeline, who was once a teacher, Mina and the audience understand what to do and what not to do. But fortune favours the brave, and rules, like all films that deal with a similar concept, are meant to be broken. What follows is a series of discoveries as the characters and we get closer to these creatures to figure out who they are and why they become accustomed to tinkering with trapped people like this latest episode. Bigg Boss.
The film is at its best when it focuses on the fear of the unknown and what is hidden behind the glass window. With a firm grasp on the technical aspects, Shyamalan (once again, like his father) uses blurred backgrounds and layered images to create a sense of uneasiness. He lets us indulge in the imagination of what these creatures might have looked like before they were revealed in their full glory. But once that veil is lifted, the film has very little to show. For starters, for a film with just four main characters, it’s a bit much.The Watchers’ The supporting cast lacks depth, and when they’re confronted with life-or-death situations, we’re not even meant to care about them, let alone cheer for them.
A scene from ‘The Watchers’ | Photo credit: @WarnerBrosPictures/YouTube
Similar to M Night Shyamalan woman in the water, where the hero loses his wife and children and then encounters a mythical creature, or symptomsin which the main character, who is mourning the death of his wife, faces an alien invasion, Meena The Watchers struggling to deal with the death of her mother, which she inadvertently does as a child. But the expositions only help add more importance to the character, not the film. It also helps to extend the runtime, as the concept is too small to be fully relied upon. But having said that, just when you think the film has come to an end, you realise that there is still a good chunk of runtime left to deliver the final twist, which comes with the effect of dry leaves on a forest floor.
Despite an interesting premise, The Watchers succumbs to genre templates, and the fact that it will remind viewers of films that re-invented the thriller – such as Invasion of the Corpse Stealers Or M Night Shyamalan’s own Village, This doesn’t help much. The characters are uninteresting and the suspense is expected to provide thrills rather than scares, The Watchers It doesn’t do justice to the genre or its famous source material. You know a thriller is in trouble if the only character you want to save without harm is an animal, and if it’s a parrot that keeps saying, “Try not to die”, you know it’s trying to keep an eye on you!
The Watchers is in cinemas now
