The Watchers (2024)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- Tasked with delivering a rare Golden Conure parrot, a pet shop employee named Mina (Dakota Fanning) runs into trouble, when her car mysteriously shuts off in a desolate forest. After hearing a series of strange noises, Madeline (Olwen Fouere) urges Mina to run to The Coop, a fortified shelter in the middle of the forest. 

Mina joins Madeline, Ciara (Georgina Campbell), and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) inside The Coop. Madeline tells Mina about The Watchers, a supernatural species. The Watchers closely observe anyone inside The Coop through a large two-way mirror, and Madeline warns Mina about the dangers of breaking a set of strict rules fiercely enforced by The Watchers. The group learns more about The Watchers through a series of video recordings from Professor Kilmartin (John Lynch), a man who voluntarily secluded himself in the forest to study The Watchers (aka fairies). Determined to escape, Mina sets out to find answers, but a handful of mishaps threatens the safety of the survivors. 

My Thoughts- Madeline is one of The Watchers AND she’s a hybrid! A genuinely surprising twist, but it’s the kind of twist that also makes sense. Madeline was supposed to just be another survivor. But she knew a lot about The Watchers/fairies, their way of life, their weaknesses (Watchers only come out at night, because they’re vulnerable to sunlight), and the rich history behind the existence of their species. Going further with the big twist, Madeline should’ve been dead, because we’re lead to believe Professor Kilmartin murdered the fairy version of Madeline years ago. To add another eerie layer to the story, The Watchers are also shapeshifters, so Madeline chose the form of Kilmartin’s dead wife after being held captive by the Professor.  

Wait, so you’re telling me the movie doesn’t end in bloodshed after Madeline (assuming the form of Ciara) was determined to kill Mina and Ciara? The Watchers ends with a conversation and desperate pleas from Mina, urging Madeline to not give in to her feelings of hatred for humans. Madeline had every justifiable reason that you could possibly think of to hold some deep grudges. As a “daywalker,” she was an outcast amongst her own people, and the one human (Kilmartin), who she believed was trustworthy tried to kill her. 

But Mina reminds Madeline that anger, jealousy, hatred, and working through those emotions to transform yourself into a better person is what the human experience is all about. In The Coop, Madeline genuinely cares about Mina, Daniel, and Ciara. And there’s no denying Madeline was a good person. She risked her life to protect all three of them, no matter how much Madeline tried to cling to her selfish motivations for living in the outside world. 

The Watchers concludes with Mina reconciling with her twin sister Lucy (also played by Dakota Fanning). Mina stayed away from Lucy and her children for years, because she carried a heavy burden of guilt for causing a car accident that killed their mother, when they were both kids.

I was almost sure I could easily predict where the story was going, who would survive, and how The Watchers would end, but I was wrong, more than once. Writer/director Ishana Night Shyamalan throws a decent amount of curveballs at you. During the early stages of the movie, I was ready to dismiss this one as an ordinary post-apocalyptic movie. 

Mina, the rebel and the rule-breaker, shows up and she disrupts the tight bond between Madeline, Ciara, and Daniel. After living in fear of The Watchers, with survival in one single room (and some free time in the forest during daylight hours) as the daily objective, Mina will be the reason group escapes. That, or Mina will be directly responsible for everyone suffering horrible deaths at the hands of The Watchers. 

But The Watchers slowly unravels an intriguing mystery, full of good surprises, and the story is loaded with fine details. Also, the forest really works as a good spooky and quiet setting, a place that eerily attracts lost souls. 

The history of The Watchers/fairies, and their bloody conflict with humans, adds a lot of emotional depth to the story. Forced underground to live in darkness, a peaceful and harmonious relationship ended, because the humans reached a point, where they feared The Watchers’ supernatural abilities. And Mina naming the parrot Darwin is a clever little nugget, because you could say Darwinism plays a role in the story here. 

There’s a lot of good in The Watchers, but the CGI just looks so bad. The shape-shifting transformations are decent enough. Still, The Watchers are supposed to be fearsome monsters, but the CGI makes them look kind of goofy in certain scenes. And I rolled my eyes during that one scene, where Daniel is tricked by “John,”  Ciara’s husband. They already established The Watchers have shape-shifting abilities, so Daniel should’ve known better.

A few chinks in the armor, but overall The Watchers is a damn good sci-fi horror film. The casting is top notch, because everyone perfectly fits their characters. Dakota Fanning nails Mina, a lost and broken young woman, who doesn’t want to deal with a tragedy from her past. Mina playing dress-up to go out to a bar is a scene that sticks out for me, because she’s either not confident enough to be herself, or she doesn’t want to open up to anyone about the car accident. 

Olwen Fouere delivered a superb performance as Madeline. Madeline is believable as the stern mother figure, who wants to protect Mina, Daniel, and Ciara. But on the other side of her role as a guardian, you could also say Madeline is the only person, who’s holding the group back, killing any real chances for an escape and freedom, because locking yourself in one room day in and day out will surely drive anyone crazy.

The Watchers is not limited to horror elements, including creepy nighttime scenes, scares, and some good tense close calls. You can point to Mina, Madeline, Professor Kilmartin, and Ciara (to a certain extent), and you’ll see stories about regret, loss, revenge, guilt, and the need for closure. 

The Watchers ends with a peaceful resolution, emotional reunions, and full circle moments. Ishana Shyamalan could’ve taken the easy way out, ending the movie with brutal deaths and violence. But you have to listen closely to Mina’s words during the fiasco at Ciara’s house: life, and being a human being is a tricky and sometimes complicated journey. Giving in to bad thoughts and emotions is not the best option, because you’re blindly taking a chance of plunging yourself into more disastrous setbacks.

Rating- 9/10