Overview
A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
The Watched, or The Watchers as it is known internationally, is based on the novel of the same name by A.M.Shine, and stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, an American working in Ireland who is estranged from her twin sister ever since the death of their mother, which Mina blames herself for. When Mina is tasked with delivering a valuable parrot to a zoo, her car breaks down in a vast forest in which Mina becomes lost, stumbling upon an old woman named Madeline (Olwen Fouere) who leads her to shelter with two others, Oliver Finnegan’s Daniel and Georgina Campbell’s Ciara in a building known as The Coop. Outside that room, Mina is told, creatures reside that hunt at night, and study the inhabitants of The Coop, leaving them safe so long as they obey 3 rules. But what are the creatures, and what do they really want?
The film is directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, and is produced by her father M Night Shyamalan, and it is safe to say that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. Ishana’s style is very similar to her father’s, with a confident use of framing, slow and intriguing mystery with hints of supernatural, and a tight focus on a small group of characters. However, much like her father’s work of recent years, for everything that is good in here, there is an element of over explaining that kind of dampens the final act, especially when the reveals are so signposted that within the first 20 minutes I had worked out pretty much the whole story.
But, that doesn’t really take away from how solid this is as a directorial debut, and how well Ishana uses her cast. Fanning is captivating in the lead role, playing a character that is so divorced from the world around her that it almost feels fitting that she should become lost in a fantasy horror forest. Olwen Fouere as Madeline lends strong support in a role that demands sympathy, but also caution, with suggestions of interior motives at play throughout. Whilst some story elements feel a tad contrived, and the final act feels somewhat of a let down after such a strong build, the overall result is a film that I found myself respecting more than I enjoyed – much in the same way I have felt about M Night’s films of recent years.