Four strangers are trapped in a building in the remote woods of western
Ireland, where mysterious creatures stalk them by night.
Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Ishana Night Shyamalan
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, Olwen Fouere
Ishana Night Shyamalan's feature debut,
The Watched (or The Watchers as it's known in
North America; who knows what's behind the name change?), shows she has
her father's eye but few of his other talents. Like Brandon Cronenberg,
Ishana seems set on embracing her father's influence rather than purposely
shying away from any comparisons. On paper The Watched reads
like exactly the sort of movie you might expect from daddy Shyamalan, but
where Cronenberg Junior has proven himself capable of replicating both his
father's thematic obsessions and talent, Shyamalan Junior displays none of
her old man's storytelling skills. Watching The Watched, I couldn't help but wonder if this is what it's like to watch an M.
Night movie if you're not a fan of his distinctive shtick.
A somnambulistic Dakota Fanning is miscast in the lead role of
Mina (that Bram Stoker reference is one of several pieces of evidence here
that Ishana is clearly a fan of Ireland's rich horror lore; there's also
mention of a sister named Lucy), an American escaping a traumatic past (of
course) and now residing in the Irish city of Galway, where she works at a
pet store. When Mina is tasked with bringing a rare parrot to a zoo in
Belfast, she finds herself stuck in a dense forest when her car breaks
down, as somewhat suspiciously does her phone. As darkness falls, Mina
hears some creepy sounds in the woods, and spots a woman running through
the trees. She follows the woman to an isolated building in the middle of
the forest and follows her shouted order, "If you want to live you'll
run!"
Inside the one room building, Mina finds herself alongside Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), the woman who guided her there; Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), a
nervy young Irish lad (Finnegan seems to be channelling Irish pop duo
Jedward with his odd performance); and Ciara (rising horror star Georgina Campbell, who might have been a better choice for the lead role of Mina), a ditzy
young British woman. The sparse room contains nothing but a table, some
chairs, a TV with a DVD player and a vintage gramophone (sounds a lot like
my first bedsit). As a general rule, if you find yourself in a room
with Olwen Fouéré and a vintage gramophone you should immediately
make your excuses and leave, but Mina decides to stay the night. In doing
so she discovers that her new roommates have been trapped in the woods for
a considerable amount of time.
If you saw the recent horror mediocrity
Tarot
you'll recall how Fouéré was wheeled in for a couple of scenes to lazily
explain that film's backstory and lay out its mythos. The Irish actress
finds herself saddled with a similar job here, but she's present
throughout and spends practically all of her screen time explaining one
new plot contrivance after another. The first thing she explains is how a
group of mysterious creatures she's labelled "The Watchers" emerge from
burrows in the forest once night falls and spy on Madeline and her fellow
inmates, who stand in a line before the one-sided window as though they're
in a police line-up.
Unlike the others, Mina is determined to find a way out of this
predicament and begins breaking the various "rules" laid out by Madeline,
including daring to venture down into one of the deep burrows in a
sequence that is nowhere near as suspenseful as its setup suggests. Every
time Mina thinks she might have come up with a plan, Madeline interjects
with some new rule, like the world's creepiest dungeonmaster. This is how
the story progresses, with every twist and turn being told to us by
Madeline rather than shown to us by the film. It makes for an exasperating
watch.
As this is made by a filmmaker with THAT last name, you'll no doubt be
primed for a twist, and we do indeed get one here, but it's clunkily
unveiled through the same tiresome exposition that we've spent the
previous 80 minutes wading through. While the twist lacks impact it is
somewhat fascinating in a metatextual context, which I'm going to have to
enter SPOILER territory to discuss, so
turn back now if you must.
The "watchers" are revealed to be the sidhe of Irish mythology, better
known as "changelings." These fairy-like creatures are known for taking
the place of humans, usually either children or mothers. If you've seen
either of the Irish horror movies
The Hole in the Ground
or
You Are Not My Mother
you'll have seen this mythology explored in far more confident and
compelling fashion. In this version of the sidhe we're told that the
creatures watch their human prey in order to better mimic their
appearance. This theme of mimicry is hinted at earlier in the film,
through both Mina's talking parrot and a scene in which she dons a
disguise on a night of pub crawling. If you're a young filmmaker who knows
you'll be burdened with comparisons to your famous parent, to choose this
subject matter is quite daring. Ishana seems to be explicitly
acknowledging how she's attempting to mimic her father's filmmaking
style.
In The Watched, we're told that the sidhe ultimately fail because while they might be
able to replicate human appearance, they lack everything that makes us
human, our experiences of love, pain, etc (this also allows for a reading
of the film as an allegory for the artist's fear of being usurped by AI).
Unfortunately for Ishana, her film's theme only serves to draw attention
to her own shortcomings in aping her father. On a superficial level
The Watched certainly looks the part, and Ishana shows an
eye for a moody image, but her movie lacks the human touch that
distinguishes her father's best work. Bearing in mind she's still in her
mid-twenties, there's still a lot of time for Ishana to prove she can
stand on her own, but she may be advised to forge her own path rather than
conforming to the expectations of her family name.
The Watched is on UK/ROI VOD now.
