Movies News Talk
The Watchers pays most creative tribute to 2006's underappreciated fantasy Lady in the Water when contrasted to the several turns in M Night Shyamalan films. Living in a generic apartment complex, the occupants of Lady in the Water discover they are living in a fairy tale and set about to figure out their roles in it. They try to defend Bryce Dallas Howard's water nymph from the wicked Scrunt, but only find at Lady in the Water's ending that they have all been inhabiting the incorrect part of the story. One of the Watchers reveals something similar.
Every bunker resident seems to be a stranded stranger like Mina until The Watchers' finale. But not only is Madeline subtly a half-Watcher, half-human, but several characters seen throughout the film are turned out to be Watchers masquerading as humans. Further demonstrating viewers' inability to believe what they see, the girl The Watchers' heroine Mina sees in the woodland is truly a hallucinated memory of her separated twin sister. Before becoming the shape of a kid, Madeline changes into all the major characters at the finale. She's at last free, just like Lady in the Water's title heroine is.
The Watchers contains a major twist, but for anyone who has watched M Night Shyamalan's films, the surprise will be somewhat familiar. Director Ishana Night Shyamalan, the daughter of contentious horror director M Night Shyamalan, is working on a 2024 horror film called The Watchers Adapted from A.M. Shine's book of the same name, The Watchers chronicles the life of American immigrant Mina living in Galway. Mina finds herself trapped in a far-off jungle and meets three strangers inside a bunker when her supervisor assigns the pet shop employee to bring a bird to a customer.
Learning she is surrounded by the eponymous Watchers, a collection of nocturnal monsters that kill anyone attempting to flee the forest, Mina hides in this bunker with the strangers. The shock conclusion of The Watchers reveals that Madeline, the elder resident of the bunker, is covertly a half-human, half-Watcher hybrid. She was taken prisoner by a professor who built the bunker and covertly intended to flee the jungle. This twist-up previously was set by the much awaited horror tale set by the Watchers when Mina discovered about their attempts at research. The disclosure reminds one of M Night Shyamalan's works.
The Shyamalan family brand had the Watchers at a disadvantage.
The unexpected conclusion of The Watchers raises more questions about its meta-reception than about the film itself. Viewers always assumed Ishana Night Shyamalan's The Watchers would have a Twist Ending as M Night Shyamalan's films are known for their startling turns. On the other hand, The Watchers star Georgina Campbell's 2022 hit Barbarian had a twist that stunned viewers not only because of its originality but also because they had no reason to see it approaching. The Shyamalan family brand put the Watchers at a disadvantage.
Arguably unnecessary in The Watchers is Mina's last showdown with Madeline and her choice to pardon human transgressions against the Watchers.
Though like several of M Night Shyamalan's sillier twists, the discovery is a bit over-explained, the Watchers has a great twist finale. Before the main characters flee, Mina learns who created the bunker and why. She also learns about an entire conflict between the Watchers and humans while she visits the institution of the professor. She also discovers human-Watcher hybrids who can venture outside during the daytime unlike Watchers. The Watchers may have stopped at this moment, leaving viewers wondering whether any of the surviving occupants of the bunker were half-Watchers in disguise and so the fate of the titular entities remained a secret.
Ishana Night Shyamalan's new horror franchise could be started by the Watchers; it is yet unknown whether a post-credits sequence setup a sequel. The concluding sequence of the movie is sufficient to give a basis even though its second season was not officially declared. The filmmaker is already developing fresh materials, hence it seems that the studio is ready to carry on the story. Given the ending of The Watchers, it is evident that viewers will be enthralled to watch how the plot develops.
Clearly, the production will take some time if the film is to operate as expected and win audience acceptance. With the caliber of the movie, it will be an interesting addition to the horror subgenre.