The Watchers (film)

The Watchers is a 2024 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan in her directorial debut, produced by M. Night Shyamalan, and based on the 2022 novel of the same name by A. M. Shine. It stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, and Oliver Finnegan.

The Watchers was released theatrically in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on June 7, 2024. The film received negative reviews from critics and grossed $33 million.

Plot
Mina, an American expatriate working in a pet shop in Galway, Ireland, struggles to come to terms with the death of her mother, which she inadvertently caused fifteen years earlier, and is estranged from her twin sister Lucy. Mina's boss tasks her with delivering a valuable golden conure parrot to a zoo near Belfast. En route, her car breaks down, stranding her in a forest. Lost, she names the parrot Darwin. She follows an old woman, Madeline, to a bunker-like building, nicknamed "The Coop", and meets two other occupants, Ciara and Daniel. Madeline explains that mysterious entities called "The Watchers" observe the group through the mirrored window of the Coop every night.

Madeline explains the rules to Mina: at night the Watchers kill anyone outside the Coop, and nobody must enter the Burrows, the underground tunnels where the Watchers retreat during the day because of their aversion to sunlight. The group has been stranded in the forest for several months without encountering a Watcher; Ciara's husband John left the Coop days earlier but has not returned. Daniel helps Mina explore a Burrow, where she unearths several items like a camcorder and a bicycle and narrowly escapes a Watcher. That night, John appears at the Coop but Madeline refuses to let him in. When "John" fails to verify himself to Ciara, he appears to be dragged away. The Watchers crack the mirror; Madeline returns the items to the Burrow to appease them.

As winter falls, the group begins to turn hostile against one another. Daniel locks Mina and Madeline out of the Coop one night, forcing them to seek shelter in the forest. They witness the Watchers, humanoid creatures that imitate the Coop's occupants and react angrily to Madeline and Mina's absence. The pair get back into the Coop and Madeline explains that the Watchers are shapeshifting fairies attempting to learn how to better mimic humans. The Watchers attack the Coop. The group escapes through a hidden door leading to an underground study. Mina uncovers video diaries of Professor Rory Kilmartin, the Coop's creator. Kilmartin had come to the forest to study the creatures and had even captured one of them and bonded with it. In his last entry, the despondent professor explains how to escape from the forest and requests that his research be destroyed. The video ends with his climbing back into the Coop to kill the captured Watcher and himself.

The next day, the group follows the professor's directions and uses Darwin to guide them to the river at the edge of the forest. On the way, Madeline shows them a stone marker, explaining that humans had warred against the Fairies, who were deprived of their wings, driven underground, and imprisoned in the forest. Upon reaching the professor's boat, a Watcher mimicking John kills Daniel. The others take the boat and finally arrive back to civilization. On the road, a bus stops for them, and the driver says he can take them to the next city.

Mina heads to the professor's university to destroy his notes. There, she learns that humans and fairies once lived in harmony, with some even mating and producing hybrid offspring that could withstand daylight. She visits Ciara and shows her photographs, revealing that Madeline had been the professor's late wife. Their "Madeline" is the Watcher that the professor captured.

Ciara is revealed to be a disguised Madeline when the real Ciara arrives at the house. Madeline changes her form, knocking out Ciara and attacking Mina. She recounts that she was an outcast among the Watchers for her ability to walk during the day and plans to kill and replace Mina. Mina reveals Madeline's status as a half-human hybrid, persuading her to let go of her hatred towards humans, and telling her that there may be others like her out there. Madeline sprouts wings and departs.

Later, Mina reconciles with her sister Lucy. Meanwhile, Madeline, in the form of a human child, keeps watch over Mina.

Cast

 * Dakota Fanning as Mina/Lucy
 * Georgina Campbell as Ciara
 * Olwen Fouéré as Madeline
 * Oliver Finnegan as Daniel
 * Alistair Brammer as John, Ciara's husband
 * John Lynch as Kilmartin

Production
In February 2023, New Line Cinema announced it would produce The Watchers, written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan in her feature directorial debut. That April, Dakota Fanning and Georgina Campbell joined the cast. Principal photography took place in Dublin, Wicklow and Galway from July to September 2023. In mid-July, production was granted an interim agreement to continue filming during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. The film was self-financed by Ishana's father, M. Night Shyamalan, and sold to Warner Bros. for $30 million.

The topic of nepotism was raised throughout the film's press tour because of Ishana's industry connection. In an interview, she said, "It's something that I consider and have considered every day in the process. I was very afraid of what those implications would be and if I would be judged. Having something to prove when you walk into a room and a space is never a bad thing and makes you work harder and makes you want it more." In another interview, she said discussions around nepotism were "totally valid", that what was important was the "reaction to the privilege", and: "By nature of being born into this life and having a parent in the industry, there's definitely a sort of advantage stepping into the field, you just have that sense of being able to achieve it – I think as with any child pursuing their parent's field."

Release
The Watchers was theatrically released in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland on June 7, 2024, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The release was briefly shifted to June 14 before returning to its original date. It was titled The Watched in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Box office
, The Watchers grossed $19.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $13.9 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $33 million.

In the United States and Canada, The Watchers was released alongside Bad Boys: Ride or Die, and was projected to gross around $8–10 million from 3,350 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2.9 million on its first day (including $1 million from Thursday night previews) and went on to gross $7 million from its opening weekend, finishing in fourth.

Critical response
The film received negative reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 55% overall positive score, with 36% saying they would definitely recommend the film.

Several critics negatively compared Shyamalan's style to her father's. Dylan Roth of The Observer commended the Shyamalan family for "never obscuring the nepotism at play" during the press tour, but wrote, "The Watchers did not convince me of much. Worse, it is precisely what I'm sure the young director hoped it wouldn't be—a pale imitation of her father's patented style." In a similarly negative but contrasting review, Bob Strauss of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "There's an inelegant blend of Celtic folklore thriller... [and] contemporary horror movie tropes that renders the result unsatisfying for fans of either genre. And yet, Shyamalan proves herself a proficient director throughout most of this slog." RelishMix, which analyzes activity across social media platforms to summarize the public's general responses to a film's marketing, said it received 9% more attention than "first installment horror norms" but that "negative convo on The Watchers is limited to those turned off by M. Night Shyamalan's involvement as a producer after being dissatisfied with many of his past cinematic ventures."

In a mixed review for AV Club, Katie Rife concluded, "The Watchers is clearly a first film, with the promise and the problems that come with it." Michael Phillips' review for Chicago Tribune, rated three out of four stars, stated that Shyamalan "works well with cinematographer Eli Arenson to envelop the chamber-sized ensemble in various shades of dread, or comfort." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film 2.5/5 stars, writing, "The Watchers starts on an extremely promising note. But only a small fraction of the anticipation that it raises is satiated. Be that as it may, there is just enough in the shadows that the director creates to make sizeable chunks of the film watchable, even immersive."