The Watchers

If rookie filmmaker Ishana Night Shyamalan is following in her father’s footsteps, then The Watchers showcases her talent more as a director than a writer.

This atmospheric and visually striking psychological thriller, about a nightmarish journey into the woods, is moderately creepy yet rarely digs beneath the gimmicky surface.

The film generates a handful of effective jump scares and clever twists before ultimately falling back on familiar horror tropes while exploiting paranoia and hallucinations triggered by personal trauma.

Burdened by guilt and grief from a past tragedy, American artist Mina (Dakota Fanning) has fled to the western coast of Ireland, where she works in a pet store. “You wouldn’t like me if you knew the real me,” she explains to a stranger at a Galway pub.

Mina mostly keeps to herself, aside from a chatty golden parrot who accompanies her on a rural drive that culminates with her car breaking down adjacent to some unmapped woods. Her distress and disorientation intensifies when she hears strange noises after sunset.

Eventually, she meets Madeline (Olwen Fouere), a mysterious woman who directs her to a shelter shared with two other strangers, Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan). They live by Madeline’s strictly enforced rules, aimed at protecting them from nocturnal attacks by unseen creatures that lurk outside and apparently watch them through a mirrored wall.

Eventually, Mina is skeptical of something more sinister, as suggested by her initial distrust of Madeline, who remains guarded about her history. Are the “Watchers” even real? The newcomer becomes determined to piece the puzzle together while fighting for her survival.

Fanning garners sympathy as our window into this strange and unsettling world infused with Irish folklore and satirical looks at fractured families and reality TV voyeurism.

The film crafts some haunting imagery amid the lush forests and rolling hills. In fact, the outdoor setting gives off a claustrophobic vibe, shrouded in dense fog and blanketed by thick groves of tall trees.

Shyamalan’s screenplay, adapted from a Gothic novel by A.M. Shine, features some intriguing character dynamics as motives shift and trust wavers among the hostages.

However, The Watchers lacks the emotional depth and thematic complexity to provide more consistent suspense. It feels that rather than building toward the obligatory reveal, we’re just waiting for it. In other words, moviegoers are the ones left stranded.

Rated PG-13, 102 minutes.