Written And Directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan
Darwin: "Try not to die."
Mina: "I thought they said you couldn't talk."
Catching up with some summer horror themed movies and yes, I've stumbled upon this American/Irish production, helmed by the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan. It's a debut feature and it's something alright. Let's dive in, shall we?
Our protagonist of the piece would be an American woman named Mina (Dakota Fanning). Mina found herself in Ireland, specifically Galway where fortunately, we're mostly spared the grotesque outdated stereotypes that American productions tend to do when filming in Ireland. Of course Mina's not just visiting the Emerald Isle.
Nope, Mina's been assigned by her boss to transport a golden conure parrot named Darwin to a zoo near Belfast and it's enough route that things got a bit crazy for Mina. Crazy in the sense that not only did she and the parrot wind up in a creepy woodland but also crazy that she ended up in a glass room in said creepy woodland with three others for company.
The others being a young wife named Ciara (Georgina Campbell), only man in the group, Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) and mystery older woman, Madeline (Olwen Fouéré). All four are there to entertain mystery night creatures known as The Watchers in scenes that looked like they could've been audition pieces for the Druid Theatre.
Of course, Mina's savvy enough to try and ask questions and even savvy enough to try and get Daniel to help her escape The Watchers. Granted, they're a creepy bunch, largely obscured by the night scenes and when the group do escape, it's Daniel that ended up being the first to be killed off. He's given a fairly grisly demise.
As for The Watchers themselves, they're fairies/changelings unable to withstand the daylight. Except for Madeline, who more or less orchestrated everything throughout the movie and had a grudge against humans, despite being half human herself. It's an okay reveal as Mina managed to use her smarts in order to broker a truce and save herself.
By the end of the movie, Mina's essentially not only gotten herself out of a sticky situation with The Watchers but she also managed to even reconnect with her twin, Lucy (Dakota Fanning). As for Madeline, she's very much keeping to her side of the bargain as well.
- John Lynch also had a supporting role in the movie as Professor Kilmartin, whom Madeline had been romantically involved with.
- The movie's based a book of the same name by A.M. Shine.
- For the UK and Ireland, this film's called The Watched.
- Chronology: Mid 2000s, in both Galway and Belfast. The movie was partially in Galway as well as Dublin and Wicklow.
Overall, I found The Watchers to be an okay experience. It's diverting for its length, though plodding in parts but there's a decent enough atmosphere surrounding the whole thing. It's not an amazing debut but not would be it an awful one either.
Rating: 6 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment