It was only a matter of time before filmmaker Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of modern horror auteur M. Night Shyamalan, would make her feature film debut. And of course, based on her incredible work directing some of the most intense episodes of the creepy horror series Servant, Shyamalan’s first venture into feature filmmaking would be in the genre of horror.
Showcasing some incredible potential behind the camera, Ishana Night Shyamalan has stepped into a horror sub-genre that her father has also dipped the toes into, that being fantasy-horror. With the screenwriting credit next to her name, Shyamalan has adapted A.M. Shine’s novel The Watchers, a claustrophobic tale of four strangers who are stranded in an ominous shelter in a western Ireland forest, where they are stalked at night by a mysterious creature.
Carving her own filmmaking path by presenting a distinct, unique style, there are elements of Shyamalan’s debut feature that will make horror fans excited to see where her career goes from here, especially on a visual level. However, some of the worst tendencies of her father’s career seemed to have seeped through into The Watchers, making for an overall muddled experience.
Mena [Dakota Fanning] is a young American artist, living in Ireland, struggling to get her work noticed. Her day job at a boutique pet shop often distracts her from the haunting past trauma she is trying to escape.
Given the task of delivering a bird to a buyer, Mena’s journey leads to her becoming lost and stranded in a dense forest, surrounded by signage stating, ‘Point of No Return’. As Mena goes deeper into the forest, she comes across a shelter inhabiting three strangers, Madeline [Olwen Fouere], Clara [Georgina Campbell], and Daniel [Oliver Finnegan]. As darkness approaches, and against their initial judgements, the group allow Mena into their shelter, and she soon finds that there is a dangerous, mysterious presence that emerges at night that watches every single one of their moves.
Right from the opening scene, Ishana Night Shyamalan creates an atmosphere of unease. The visual styling of the film, which often uses mirrors, darkness and off-putting cinematography, creates a creepiness that lingers throughout the film. Creating claustrophobia within the shelter by using tight camera shots, seemingly not giving the characters any room to breathe is then juxtaposed by the vastness of the forest, and the unknown creatures that linger in the darkness. Both elements, although visually captured in such unique ways, both effectively add to the film’s tension and unease.
The pacing of the first act of the film also adds to the tension, with Shyamalan often slowly setting moments up to enhance the dread, and really leave the audience lingering in the uncertainty of what exactly is out in the forest, and whether it’s going to create a loud bang or reveal to jump scare the viewers (of which the film contains a few decent ones)! The patient pacing also enhances the mystery aspect of the film, creating a strong sense of engagement for the audience, constantly guessing and second guessing as to what could be happening.
Where The Watchers begins to falter is around the halfway point, where after a handful of really effective, creepy moments, the film slows down even more, almost with a feeling like the story doesn’t know where to go before the ‘reveal’. Scenes of tension between the strangers, investigating in the forest, and lingering shots in the dark rinse and repeat for a solid portion of the middle of the film without revealing any more of the mystery.
By the time the story gets to it’s reveals, the film has come to a standstill, and the investment in the mystery has all but gone away. Then the reveal itself is (in somewhat classic Shyamalan fashion) … interesting, but unfortunately weak. It’s revealed with such sincerity by the characters too that it unfortunately feels hammy in a movie that really has been anything but hammed up leading up to that point. Then overstaying it’s welcome with an elongated, almost prologue like, ending, the second half of The Watchers is a real slog to get through.
It’s unfortunate that the performances across the board don’t do a lot to assist with swallowing the pill of the film’s faults. Fanning leans into the monotone, trauma-haunt a little too much, while the over-acting of the three strangers often tonally clashes with Fanning’s performance and the more serious nature of the film’s atmosphere.
On a visual and horror-based atmospheric level, The Watchers shows that Ishana Night Shyamalan has a solid understanding of creating tension and unease and maintaining it through pacing and fantastic camera work. However, when it comes to choosing and adapting certain source materials, there is work to be done.
The Watchers is in cinemas June 6. You can also read Nick’s interview with writer and director Ishana Night Shyamalan here!
