The Watchers - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Watchers



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



AV NIRVANA is member and reader-supported. When you purchase an item using our links, we might earn an affiliate commission.

​

Movie
I’m going to fully admit that I literally forgot about The Watchers months ago. To the point that when I received this review copy on Wednesday it sort of triggered an “oh yeah, Dakota Fanning has a new horror movie coming out” and didn’t both once to check the cast and crew to familiarize myself with everything before my viewing. So I had a really surreal experience for the first 40 minutes or so of the film. I was sitting there wondering to myself why I was getting a mixture of The Village and pieces of Lady in the Water, only for the third act to REALLY feel like Lady in the Water vibe wise. At this point I was roughly 15 minutes from the end and had to go onto IMDB and look up some facts on the film only to get punched in the face by the director’s name. Ishana Shyamalan. That’s when it hit me between the eyes and suddenly my long term memory kicked into high gear. I remember over a year ago hearing that M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter was making her feature film debut sometime in 2024, but promptly forgot all about it, to the embarrassing point where even as I was watching The Watchers it never triggered a memory.

All of that to say that the apple really doesn’t fall very far from the tree, especially since I was getting major Lady in the Water and The Village vibes throughout the whole thing. Ishana could be seen almost as a direct clone of her father’s narrative style, using most of his tropes and tricks throughout, even going so far as to use his same clunky use of mythology and fantasy lore combined with a third act twist that is supposed to shock the viewer (sadly the ending “twist” was guessed about 30 minutes into the movie by myself, and while there is some secondary twists along with that primary twist to keep things interesting, it just wasn’t a shock when what I guessed actually came true). Now, at the same time I’m not horribly put off. Except for such flops as After Earth and Avatar: The Last Air Bender I have actually enjoyed a lot of M. Night Shyamalan’s films. He certainly peaked back in the day of Signs, The Sixth Sense and The Village, but the man has put out some rather interesting dark fantasy and horror films over the year. I still staunchly stand behind the fact that Lady in the Water is one of my absolute favorite films of his despite it not being his “best” work. And of course he gave us some SERIOUSLY awesome comebacks with the whole Unbreakable trilogy. BUUUUUUUUUUT, I’m not going to deny that the man is almost a one trick pony, regurgitating a lot of the same narrative techniques, and using his trademark final act “twist” that is meant to shock audiences like he did with The Sixth Sense or The Village.

So with that in mind, I actually ended up sort of liking The Watchers. Ishana seems to have the save level of skill that her father has (almost to the point where you could have told me M. Night Shyamalan was the director and I would have believed you) but it also suffers from many of her fathers detractions as well. The story starts out decently enough, with a tortured woman named Mina (Dakota Fanning) living in Northern Ireland to escape her own past after she accidentally killed her mother as a teenager. There she accidentally wanders into a mysterious forest where she finds herself trapped with a mysterious trio of lost souls as well. It appears that Mina has stumbled upon a cursed wood, one that doesn’t allow it’s visitors to ever leave. The only respite the 4 survivors have is a windowed steel encased structure they dub “the coop” where they can keep safe from shadowy figures in the woods dubbed “the watchers”.

The watchers seem to want only to watch (thus their name) our 4 protagonists, nothing more. But while they are allowed to roam the woods during the daytime, night time is that of the watchers, and any human found outside the walls of the coop is never heard from again. The eldest human of them there, Madeline (Olwen Fouere) warns the young ones that there are rules of the woods. If they obey the rules, then the watchers allow them to live. But Mina is having none of it, and proceeds to push the boundaries day by day, uncovering more and more about the mysterious “watchers”, only to find out that there is soooooo much more to them than meets the eye.

As I said, Ishana mirrors a lot of her father’s benefits, as well as his faults. The story shows some promise near the beginning, but soon becomes extremely predictable and familiar to the viewer (especially if they seen any of her father’s films). The 2nd act feels very well worn, and by the time we get to the 3rd act we already know where things are headed. The last 30 minutes veers directly off course from the tone of the first hour and 10 minutes, changing from thriller/horror straight over to dark fantasy. Ishana exposition vomits an entire backstory on the audience in the form of the Professor’s journals and diaries, showing us in a few minutes what SHOULD have been unveiled over a longer period of time. I’m also rather torn about the final bit. I loved the fantasy element of what is revealed, but the whole handling of it felt clumsy and awkward. As if Ishana took elements from The Lady in the Water and put her own twist on things, but still borrowing HEAVILY from her father’s bag of tricks. As such, the ending lacks the punch and shocking twist that her dad was so famous for, even though she definitely attempted it.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for violence, terror and some thematic elements.




4K Video: Video:

The Watchers is generally a well shot film, but also one that has a very gloomy, dark, and almost monochromatic element to it that keeps the flick from looking stunning. 90% of the time we’re in the dark and gloomy forest of the coop, with splashes of dimly lit ambers and browns midst the dark greens and blues of the woods. There’s a misty, foggy look to the whole thing, giving us some really nice dark forest shots, but ones that have a HINT of banding, and looks a bit soft as well. Some of this is a definite side effect of how Ishana shot her film, but part of it is simply due to side effects of doing so. Even the brightest scenes feel rather muted and dialed back, with a dimmer look that is abnormal even for HDR use. I sadly can’t compare this against the Blu-ray as Warner is STILL anti combo pack, but from what I can tell, this is simply a challenging looking style for any format, and the 4K UHD discs does the best it can with it.







Audio:

While I have to admit that there are some cheesy “gimmicky” jump scare moments throughout the film, the overall sound design for The Watchers is really stinking impressive. The forest shows off the alacrity of the Atmos track, with little chirps, cracking of tree branches, and general whispering of the monsters off in the background. Front of the room is healthily active, with strong dialog presence up in the front, and the rears get plenty of activity to go around. Bass can be quiet and reserved one moment, then literally vibrate the nails out of your drywall the next, making this probably THE single best portion of this entire 4K package.







Extras:

• Welcome to the Show: The Making of The Watchers
• Creating The Watchers
• Constructing the Coop
• Ainriochtán and the Irish Fairy Folklore
• Deleted Scene – Lair of Love

Final Score: ​

While it may sound like I’m really jumping on it’s back, I actually enjoyed at least half of the film (and not all from the same portion). Ishana has a good eye for creating a moody atmosphere, and the audio mix is beyond nuts. Being that I’m a HUGE The Lady in the Water fan, the dark fantasy elements of the last 30 minutes were right up my alley, and I had a good enough time with it. Well, despite the fact that it seemed to lack any real emotional impact. The film is competently acted, but Ishana’s feature film debut feels a bit TOO much like her dad’s weaker endeavors, and not enough of her identity. Decent watch as a rental, but not something I’d blind buy.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouere, Oliver Finnegan, John Lynch
Directed by: Ishana Shyamalan
Written by: Ishana Shyamalan
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 102 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 27th 2024

Recommendation: Decent Watch

 

[Asere]

Thanks for the review. I thought it was just ok. Idk, if it is just me but I think Dakota Fanning was a better actress as a child.

 

[Michael Scott]

Thanks for the review. I thought it was just ok. Idk, if it is just me but I think Dakota Fanning was a better actress as a child.

my wife mentioned that when we were watching it. And I kinda agree. she seems very flat and "worn out" in her adult performances for some reason.