The Watchers: A New Take on Folk Horror

Every few years, much to my delight, a little bit of fantasy and folklore creeps its way into a horror movie. While movies like Midsommar and The Witch piqued audience interest in the mid-2010s, only a handful of lower budget horror films—David Bruckner’s The Ritual and David Prior’s The Empty Man, to name a couple David-helmed attempts—have taken a stab at folk horror since then. In her directorial debut Watchers, adapted from a book by the same name, Ishana Night Shyamalan brings big-budget folk horror back with middling success.

After a requisite man-getting-chased-down-by-mysterious-creature-in-dark-woods cold open, the film zooms in on Dakota Fanning vaping. Her character Mina works a dead-end job at a pet shop in Galway, Ireland, seemingly far away from friends or family. We get hints of a deep, dark tragedy in her past as she sets off to deliver a rare bird to a zoo that her boss describes, charmingly and Irish-ly, as “a day’s journey away.

Shyamalan wastes no time taking us to the meat of the plot. Halfway through her drive, Mina ends up in a forest, steps out of her car with birdcage in tow, and almost immediately finds herself lost in the same woods shown at the start of the film. It’s dark and something’s afoot, so when she comes across a large building perplexingly placed in the middle of the forest, with a white-haired woman at the door telling her to get in or die, she gets in. There, she learns Rule #1: stand with the other three people in this cabin in front of the one-way mirrored glass wall so that those outside—the eponymous Watchers—can get their fill.

It’s a snappy start that raises intriguing questions. Who are the Watchers? Why are they Watching? Will that cute little bird ever make it to the zoo? Before we get answers, the new characters are introduced with broad strokes. There’s Ciara (Georgina Campbell), whose personality is Young Wife; troubled teen Daniel (Oliver Finnegan); and Madeline (Olwen Fouéré) of the threatening demeanor and white hair. 

Unfortunately for the stakes of the movie, the next 1.25 hours fail to build emotional rapport with these characters. Mina distrusts Madeline and immediately starts undermining her rules for surviving in the forest; she bonds a bit with the gentle-hearted Ciara, whose husband we learn is the man who died at the beginning of the movie, although she doesn’t know that yet; and she takes advantage of Daniel’s easily influenced nature to try to find a way out of the forest. 

There are some glimmers of emotional resonance here, but the relationships lack a necessary weight. Cliche-filled dialogue and one-dimensional backstories make it hard to get invested in any of the characters as individuals. And while Dakota Fanning capital E emotes through the hardened exterior of Mina’s character, the rest of the cast bring nothing of note. Past traumas are hinted at or overtly told, but even abusive fathers and dead family members fail to give the characters depth. 

It’s hard to tell if this is a byproduct of adapting a poorly written novel or if Shyamalan prioritized style over substance. And if nothing else, The Watchers has style in spades. Shyamalan’s past work on music videos, television shows, and her father M. Night Shyamalan’s most recent movies has clearly paid off. Her directing is preternaturally self-assured for a debut, and her eye for detail makes the forest, the creatures, and the story itself come alive. She switches between sweeping overhead shots showing the full grandeur of the forest to granular, up-close looks at the twisted branches and dark underbrush trapping Mina and co. The movie relies on a (somewhat heavy-handed) motif of doubles and obfuscation, and Shyamalan brings this theme out with clever mirror tricks, purposeful blocking, and expert composition.

The world-building is particularly fun, as Shyamalan fills the movie with a wealth of visual stories. Mina’s Galway apartment is covered with her inked sketches; the folk-horror aspect of the movie comes through in mysteriously etched stone and woven tapestries telling centuries-old lore; the building in the forest features a 1950s-esque television playing a boxset of a reality show a la Love Island, created especially for the film. That building itself is simple but rich with story, set up like a stage on which Mina, Madeline, Ciara, and Daniel perform a play each night for their captors.

Shyamalan gives us thought-provoking imagery and visual signifiers, but she’s not willing to let those visuals stand on their own. As the plot escalates and more information emerges about the forest and the Watchers, Shyamalan starts telling us in great detail what’s going on, rather than just showing us. And the details are overwhelming. There are overwrought voiceovers from characters who knew more than they let on, medieval scrolls and history books, found footage of characters we haven’t met who explain their entire thought process and motivations. And if that’s not enough, Shyamalan sprinkles in heavy hints of what the penultimate twist will be throughout the film, leaving no doubt about where the climax will go. 

Whether it’s the source material (I am not going to read the book to find out) or Shyamalan’s screenwriting, the film ends up weighed down by the deluge of exposition and a dearth of character development. The Watchers is a strong directorial debut, but Shyamalan will be better served outsourcing the writing next time.

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