'The Watchers' review: Dakota Fanning embraces folk horror with a Shyamalan twist (2024)

The Watchers seems a classic Shyamalan premise. A simple but creepy setup, rich in spooky atmosphere, peppered with acclaimed actors, and surely promising a twist at the end. Perhaps the first twist —for those not paying close attention to the film's promotions — is that while M. Night Shyamalan is a producer on this tale of terror, it's his daughter Ishana Shyamalan who makes her feature directorial debut here.

After helming six episodes of M. Night's sinister TV series Servant, Ishana has adapted the A.M. Shine novel The Watchers into a film that feels at home in the cinematic world of boys who see dead people and aliens whose only weakness is water. But the toughest part of the reductive "nepo baby" label is how much more harshly one's work might be judged out the gate.

Can The Watchers — for instance — live up to the shock and awe M. Night offered with The Sixth Sense? Well, no. But some points of order: 1) That was his third movie, not his first. 2) Even he has struggled to top it, and 3) None of this negates The Watchers being a hell of a scary good time.

What's The Watchers about?

Set in modern-day Ireland, The Watchers centers on an 28-year-old American woman named Mina (Dakota Fanning), who is living a life of self-imposed isolation in a charming town. She has a job at a local pet shop, but is not introduced talking to customers or chatting with a coworkers. She's shown instead glumly vaping. Later, she'll blow off some steam by putting on a wig and hitting up a one-night stand with a fake identity, while ducking calls from her twin sister. She is alone on purpose, but soon will be forced to join a newfound family.

As she's tasked with driving through a deep forest, her car breaks down, leaving Mina to wander into the trees seeking help. Just like that, she's lost, and all she finds are three weirdos who insist she follow them back to their "coop" before dark and follow their rules —which include being locked in before nightfall. Within this unwelcoming cinder block shack, one wall is mirrored glass. In the dark night, it looks from the outside like a TV set, projecting light and the humble lives of its captives to whoever — or whatever — is watching.

Seeking an escape, Mina looks to discover the truth of the Watchers, but soon realizes that requires help from the others.

Ishana Shyamalan builds The Watchers on jump scares and atmosphere.

Before we meet Mina, Ishana Shyamalan's screenplay introduces us to a man already lost in the woods. Trembling, he finds an ominous sign made of human bones that warns this is a point of no return. The inevitable attack that follows is clichéd, as the monster pulls him off-frame with the man screaming and the creature unseen. But look, that works for a reason. Shyamalan smartly keeps the true shape of her Watchers off-frame or in the darkness for much of the runtime, a device that has worked since Jaws at building audience anticipation and stoking fear. Our own imaginations become the filmmaker's ally, filling in the blanks with our personal nightmare fuel until a clearer — and possibly creepier—picture develops.

This cold-open attack plays to slasher conventions, teasing the audience with a hint of the carnage to come, essentially whetting our appetites for terror. Best of all, it establishes the woods as a place of shadows, inexplicable cruelty, and horrific sounds. The chaotic noise that layers to create the Watchers roar is extraordinary, like something ripped from a thousand half-remembered nightmares. It cracks and screeches and rattles your bones. So, as soon as Mina loses sight of her car, your goosebumps rise in horrid expectation.

Jump scares get a bad rap because too often, they're the primary ploy to spook audiences. But Shyamalan uses them here to punctuate moments of terror. In between, she allows her characters to build tension through their fear, conflicting theories, and personal breakdowns. Essentially, jumps scares are but one instrument in her rock band of horror.

Dakota Fanning leads a strong ensemble in The Watchers.

At first, Fanning being an American feels like a ploy to attach a Hollywood star to this horror film. But soon it's clear Shyamalan is using Fanning's nationality as a cue to Mina's sensibilities. Ugly Americans abroad have a garish tendency to be ignorant of traditions and superstitions. (See Midsommar!) So, in the mold of folk horror, who better to bumble into an ancient forest, where the residents believe in something peculiar and likely paranormal? True to the trope, Mina rejects belief in favor of rationalism. Then she exploits the emotional needs of her fellow captives to manipulate them into doing her bidding, a curious innovation in this subgenre where metropolitan outsiders are often doomed for their defiance.

Cleverly, such masterminding is paralleled within the movie in a fictional TV show called Lair of Love. Abandoned DVDs of the reality dating series allow the show to play in the coop as an almost comedic backdrop as Mina plots. It also echoes her predicament: watched by an audience who is obsessed with her but frankly is rooting for disaster.

While Mina might come off as cold in the face of the Watchers' gaze, her trapped scene partners aren't quite so cool. Gentle Clara (Barbarian's Georgina Campbell), who always has a kind word, is a people pleaser harboring a dangerous hope alongside a volatile heartache. Impulsive Daniel (Outlander's Oliver Finnegan) is a young man whose need for female approval is edged with a resentment of having no power over their situation. As for Madeline (The Northman's Olwen Fouéré), she carries a maternal air in her patient but stern tone and thick silver hair. She's been in the coop the longest, and so, while the others depend on her apparent survival skills, they also resent her composure and control.

Early on, you can see how these conflicts risk cracking open the curious cage in the middle of the woods. And the violent breaking noises from just outside the door are a visceral reminder that shivers your spine as the Watchers shudder at the door.

What's the twist of The Watchers?

Cynical moviegoers may want to outsmart Ishana's movie by searching for spoilers. And yes, there is a twist that's carefully hidden in the movie's trailers. But much like watching The Sixth Sense, there's so much more to this Shyamalan movie than its third-act shocker.

Ishana has built a moody horror offering that is not only satisfying in its folk horror framing, but also rich in character. Through flashbacks, Mina's story is carved out beyond her emotional barriers, but so too are those of her forest family. These scraps of who they were before the coop give a quivering vulnerability to the life-or-death games played within it.

As these harried hostages prepare for the inevitable escape attempt, Ishana delivers fresh tension and ruthless turns. Admittedly, the final act loses momentum in its eagerness to explain all the finer points of the movie's lore. You might well wish Ishana had more faith in her audience or her own storytelling.

Still, The Watchers is a sharply satisfying horror thriller thanks to a crackling cast, unnerving sound design, stomach-churning creatures, and an emotional story that offers far more than cheap thrills.

The Watchers opens in theaters June 7.