The Watchers: Did Ishana Shyamalan inherit her father’s talent? (critical)

A semi-horror thriller with Dakota Fanning rather intriguing and well packaged, but unfortunately much too explanatory in its second part.

At a time when the “sons and daughters of” (the “nepo babies”, as they say in the industry) are lined up without warning on social networks, we must recognize Ishana Shyamalan for a certain courage. For her first feature film, the heiress decided to go hunting directly on the land of the padre with a fantastic and semi-horror thriller entitled The Watchers. We follow Mina (Dakota Fanning), a somewhat lost young woman whose car breaks down in the middle of the forest. Trapped in these woods which seem to stretch to infinity, she finds refuge in a bunker-like building, already occupied by three people: every night, the inhabitants must allow themselves to be observed through a one-way mirror by the mysterious occupants of the forest… But do they really exist or has everyone gone crazy?

The limit of this scenario, which one might believe came from the brain of M. Night Shyamalan himself (it is, however, an adaptation of the novel The Watchers by AM Shine, an Irish writer said to be fascinated by the work of Edgar Allan Poe), is that we spend a lot of time drawing parallels between the father and the daughter. Complicated to watch the film with an innocent eye, without having reminiscences of the Village or Knock at the Cabin... And in this little game, Ishana does not come out completely a winner: if her ample camera movements allow her to emancipate herself from her progenitor, her management of suspense (in the production as in the screenplay) has difficulty maintaining the comparison.

Reality show

All the more unfortunate as the first half of Lookouts is extremely promising in its establishment of the rules that govern this pocket universe, largely inspired by Celtic folklore. But the director lacks confidence in her direction and spoils some great ideas that could have made her signature. We think in particular of the treatment of the film's device, with its humans locked up and observed by anonymous people through a window, which is extremely reminiscent of reality TV. Ishana Shyamalan unfortunately uses it at face value, by showing the character of Mina looking at a fake herself. reality show inside the structure. A little cumbersome.

Rather solid performances from Dakota Fanning and Georgina Campbell – already very good in Barbaric – will not do much: without a sharp angle to hold the boat (the desire to marry the fable and the horror is not enough to match the Guillermo del Toro of the Pan's Labyrinth and of The Shape of Waterdespite an obvious desire to get closer), The Watchers ends up slowly collapsing under its literalness and far too many explanations in the last 45 minutes.

The Watchers, by Ishana Shyamalan, with Georgina Campbell, Dakota Fanning, Olwen Fouéré… Duration: 1 h 42. Released June 12, 2024