The Watchers is a film from M. Night Shamalan's daughter. I was quite curious about this movie because I am a fan of M. Night's early work, from the Sixth Sense to Signs. I can even enjoy some of his later films for just how crazy they could be. Plus, the trailer intrigued me. The film has an interesting premise of several people in a house in the middle of the forest being watched by unknown entities. It reminds me of movies like The Witch (2016), The Village, Cube, or The Blair Witch Project. Since its M. Night's daughter directing, I was curious as to how it would be.
Unfortunately, it falls more towards M. Night's later movies, than his golden years, in terms of quality. Now, this movie is not terrible by any means. It's got a decent atmosphere to it. The acting is fine. I will say, the first half is fairly strong with the mystery of who is watching our lead characters. However, once the mystery is unraveled it becomes a very different movie, and a far less interesting one.
It really reminds me of movies like The Village, The Happening, or Old by Shamalan. The problem with Shamalan's movies is that he has very interesting premises, but almost always fails in executing them properly. This movie does that as well. With a movie with a premise like this, less is more. It would have been better if we never got a real explanation of what the watchers were. We can have the characters theorize, but never give a genuine answer.
One of the reasons why The Village and the Happening failed is because they tried to explain the mystery, when it would have been better not to. Sadly, I would prefer to watch those movies over this one. To be fair, The Watchers is objectively a better movie than those two. The acting is better, it's more tonally consistent, and there is an actual attempt at character development. However, those two movies left more of an impact on me than The Watchers.
The Blair Witch Project does this very well. It never definitively says whether it was a witch tormenting the lead characters, or just some psycho in the woods. The film gives you enough clues to make up your own mind, but never gives a definitive answer. Cube is also a good example of this. The horror genre is the one genre where not explaining everything actual can work to the film's benefit. Because the less you know, the scarier it is.
Unfortunately, it falls more towards M. Night's later movies, than his golden years, in terms of quality. Now, this movie is not terrible by any means. It's got a decent atmosphere to it. The acting is fine. I will say, the first half is fairly strong with the mystery of who is watching our lead characters. However, once the mystery is unraveled it becomes a very different movie, and a far less interesting one.
It really reminds me of movies like The Village, The Happening, or Old by Shamalan. The problem with Shamalan's movies is that he has very interesting premises, but almost always fails in executing them properly. This movie does that as well. With a movie with a premise like this, less is more. It would have been better if we never got a real explanation of what the watchers were. We can have the characters theorize, but never give a genuine answer.
One of the reasons why The Village and the Happening failed is because they tried to explain the mystery, when it would have been better not to. Sadly, I would prefer to watch those movies over this one. To be fair, The Watchers is objectively a better movie than those two. The acting is better, it's more tonally consistent, and there is an actual attempt at character development. However, those two movies left more of an impact on me than The Watchers.
The Blair Witch Project does this very well. It never definitively says whether it was a witch tormenting the lead characters, or just some psycho in the woods. The film gives you enough clues to make up your own mind, but never gives a definitive answer. Cube is also a good example of this. The horror genre is the one genre where not explaining everything actual can work to the film's benefit. Because the less you know, the scarier it is.
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