Review: ‘The Watchers’ takes audiences on an eerie trek through the woods
‘The Watchers’ follows a group of strangers trapped in a mysterious forest, involuntary entertainment for anonymous woodland creatures.
There are forests in the world rumoured to be the centre of strange occurrences. Some are the site of unexplainable events that people attribute to the paranormal. Others supposedly claim hikers, never letting them return once they enter. The woods are also the setting for many stories as the trees can obscure various dangers, whether human, animal or supernatural, as well as cause characters to become lost or disoriented due to their density and uniformity. In The Watchers, a group of people find themselves trapped in a forest, unable to escape and stalked by mysterious creatures that come out at night.
Mina (Dakota Fanning) is an American living in Ireland, working at a pet store and avoiding calls from her sister. When her boss asks her to make the day’s drive to deliver a yellow parrot, she’s happy for the distraction. But her journey takes her through a renowned forest, causing her to become lost and unable to find a way out. As night approaches, she happens upon Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), who urges her to come inside an isolated, one-room building in the middle of the woods. There, she also meets Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), and together they take shelter from the creatures that emerge from the trees when dark falls.
The film is adapted and directed by Ishana Shyamalan, daughter of movie twist master M. Night Shyamalan. This movie demonstrates the apple has not fallen far from the tree as her father’s influence is clear in her storytelling style and passion for horror/thrillers. There’s very little that’s straightforward about this story of an inescapable forest populated by mysterious figures that enjoy observing their hostages. However, seasoned genre fans will not have much difficulty figuring out the narrative’s direction. As pieces of the puzzle are revealed, the rest of the picture quickly falls into place with a nice tie-in to Irish lore that pays homage to the picture’s setting.
True to the narrative, there’s an uneasy dynamic between the characters. It’s understandable that these strangers would have difficulty trusting each other. There’s little sense of how much time they’ve been trapped in the forest and the rules to their survival seem arbitrary — but testing them could be fatal. Thus, there’s a necessity and touch of desperation to their cooperation and camaraderie that the actors convincingly convey. As the story weaves its way through twists and turns, the cast ensures audiences follow them on the journey. And even though the ending is predictable, it’s an engaging debut feature.
Director: Ishana Shyamalan
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell and Olwen Fouéré
