'The Watchers' review: a mystery box with limited reward

Consider the dilemma of the Interesting Shot, announcing itself to the viewer as a considered expression of artistic merit, of a conscientious director who thinks outside the common realm of composition and exercises a perfect design that reveals nothing unwarranted.

With the Interesting Shot, who needs life? Or tell stories? Case in point: “The Watchers,” Ishana Night Shyamalan's first feature film (you've already seen his father's movies), about a quartet of people trapped in the woods like caged animals by mysterious entities. Unfortunately, the film itself feels trapped by its airless gallery of carefully crafted images familiar to the high-toned end of the horror genre: elegantly humorous environments, deliberately half-seen creatures, actors positioned as if in a still life.

It's not that talent doesn't come into interesting shooting. But by prioritizing his collaboration with cinematographer Eli Arenson over elements like dialogue, acting, editing and inner logic, he drains his waking nightmare of a montage (based on author AM Shine's 2021 book) of anything that can connect us on a human level. All that remains are the things that indicate a carefully planned experience. Even its opening, of a guy frantically trying (and failing) to escape threatening forests, comes with explanatory narration (“There's a forest in Ireland that's not on any map”) that feels like our sense of discovery has been tested. children's.

Dakota Fanning is that narrator, who we learn is Mina, first seen as a bored-looking, chain-smoking worker at a Galway pet shop, tasked by her boss with driving a golden parrot to Belfast. Her journey takes her through those spooky forests, where suddenly her car breaks down. Lost and carrying the bird, which briefly gets its own Interesting POV Shot, she runs into a stern-looking, white-haired woman named Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), who demands that Mina follow her through the open door of a square structure of a single room. if she wants to live.

Inside what Madeline calls the Co-op, on one side of which is a window that becomes a deceptive mirror at night, Mina encounters another young woman, the quiet Ciara (Georgina Campbell). There's also a wide-eyed teenager named Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) and a lot of rules. Most importantly, after sunset, everyone must look into the mirror so that an audience of mortal forest beings called Watchers can observe their nightly imprisonment. During the day, they may be outside, but within specific boundaries marked with strange stick figures and signs scrawled “Point of No Return.”

Fanning reliably imbues Mina, who feels guilty about childhood trauma, with a risk-taking independence; she quickly bristles at the thought that escape is impossible. But her rebellious attitude puts her at odds with the imperious, humorless Madeline, a character so ridiculously fraught with meaning beyond what we're shown, that she might as well have “Just You Wait” tattooed on her forehead. . By contrast, Ciara and Daniel are as forgettable as characters can be. The only thing the quartet has to watch on their old television is (wink, wink) a DVD of a “Big Brother” style show. The irony, however, is that the level of character storytelling in any episode of a silly reality show is better than that of “The Watchers.”

After a couple of difficult encounters with their predatory captors and minimal detective work, the gang eventually learns information about their situation that suggests a way out and an answer to the reason for their experience with lab samples. But it's too late: by the time “The Watchers” has pivoted toward its rug-pulling ending (clearly a familiar thing with the Shyamalans), the level of exposition and explanation: rules, backstory, folklore, history , video diaries. , an old cassette tape, has completely overcome any genuine drama or danger. Between the clunky narrative and interesting shots, you feel defeated by both shows. and say.