THE WATCHERS

Dakota Fanning stars as Mina, an American now living in Ireland and working in a pet store. She's tasked with delivering a parrot to a customer and while cutting through a forest, her car stalls. Stranded, she grabs the bird and begins to seek assistance in repairing her car; however, she quickly loses her way and now must struggle in order to survive (preferably before night falls as that's when the watchers come out). Before long, she's spotted by Madeline (Olwen Fouéré) as Madeline runs back herself before night fall towards shelter with Mina giving chase. They lock themselves into an isolated room in the middle of the forest with a one way mirror serving as one of their walls so the watchers can view them at night when they come out. At this point, more questions are raised than answers provided. What is this place? What are the watchers and what do they want with Mina, Madeline, and the other 2 companions in the room? This is writer/director Ishana Shyamalan's film debut and being the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, she takes after her father: an elaborate story she commits to even if the audience (or at least myself) doesn't really buy it; creating new and original content, and giving it her best shot by swinging for the fences. I respect both Shyamalan family members for that last trait as they do give it their all with their films, even if they're hit-or-miss in my books (with more misses unfortunately). When it works, it works well but the flip side of that coin is when it doesn't, it fails miserably and that's how I felt almost halfway through this. It starts out simple enough and keeps the audiences attention by guessing who and what these creators are. But as their backstory is revealed, I became most disinterested. Without spoiling anything, a good effort that wasn't my cup of tea. 5.5/10