For better or worse, the name “Shyamalan” has become synonymous with the concept of twists. Whether you love his films or hate them, you at least have to appreciate M. Night Shyamalan’s dedication to providing people with exactly what they’ve come to expect: a thought-provoking —  or at times simply dumbfounding — twist. With The Watchers (2024), Shyamalan’s daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan, makes her first foray into feature directing, demonstrating whether she has what it takes to pull off the kind of suspenseful and surprising storytelling that put her father on the map. The result is a mixed bag of potential.

Adapted from the novel by A.M. Shine, The Watchers follows Mina (Dakota Fanning), an American woman on the run from her past. While living in Ireland, Mina finds herself in a forest that can’t be found on any map and where people seem to disappear upon entry. In this landscape, Mina quickly becomes trapped with three others who have managed to survive an ominous presence that stalks the woods at night. These beings known as Watchers are satiated as long as Mina, Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), Ciara (Georgina Campbell), and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) allow the creatures to watch them live their lives every night within a shelter in the woods.

In many ways, The Watchers takes on more weight than it can bear. It starts simple enough. After a tense opening that sees an individual try to escape from the forest only to be apprehended by a Watcher and presumably killed, we live a day in the life of Mina. We see her work a job she doesn’t enjoy as a pet store clerk during the day and at night go out to a bar under a false identity while sporting a wig. Mina would rather spend her life in someone else’s shoes than face the trauma from her past that has her avoiding her sister, who keeps trying to contact Mina near the 15th anniversary of their mother’s death. 

It’s clear Mina blames herself for her mother’s tragic demise. This trauma is the most interesting character thread offered by The Watchers, yet Shyamalan doesn’t give it the attention or emotional weight it deserves due to the clunky screenplay. Although the actors do their best with what they’re given, none of the film’s characters feel like fully realized individuals. They act as cogs in a machine to move the rushed plot forward.

Once Mina becomes entrapped in the seemingly never-ending forest, she loses every sense of agency. Rather than demonstrating a sense of fear or shock upon being delivered the facts of her situation by Madeline, Mina jumps straight to acceptance. She doesn’t try to leave the shelter in a dramatic frenzy. She doesn’t demonstrate skepticism towards what she’s been told regarding the Watchers. And she doesn’t question why, for some reason, she’s perfectly free to explore the outside during the day. 

This reaction from Mina especially proves odd since she initially has no idea if the other survivors are telling the truth since a one-way mirror obstructs the four hostages from seeing what lies in the woods at night. Shyamalan would have benefitted from adding more opportunities through actions to create tension and mistrust between the four characters in this regard, somewhat like what director Dan Trachtenberg pulled off in 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016). Instead, this mistrust comes out of nowhere during the second act with characters suddenly deciding they want to make drastic decisions that could put others at risk. Even then, the tension is short-lived.

Almost everything that takes place during the segments in the shelter feels half-baked. One of the few activities Mina is permitted to do at night is watching old DVDs of a reality television show that was left by a mysterious figure known as the Professor who once lived in the shelter. By including this detail, Shyamalan throws one of the central themes she’s trying to explore in the face of viewers: how people in the real world try to escape their problems by embracing content like reality television.

It feels like Shyamalan is talking down to her viewers rather than allowing them to figure out what she’s trying to say on their own; she tells us her commentary directly as opposed to showing us through character and plot. When we first see Mina break open the DVD set, viewers can’t help but involuntarily roll their eyes. It’s made worse by how Shyamalan doesn’t go far enough with this theme to leave an impact once the credits roll. Instead, she quickly ditches the idea in the film’s second half to explore the poorly rendered mythology behind the Watchers.

Without giving anything away, the basic idea of the Watchers’ identities is interesting enough. What’s bothersome is that not much is done to set up their backstory. It’s another element that gets thrown into the story out of left field in the form of a lengthy unloading of exposition. The only hint viewers get as to what the creatures might be comes from a suspenseful scene in which Ciara’s husband shows up at the shelter seeking entry. Madeline stops Ciara from letting him inside because she says he is not who he claims to be. Even the basic idea that naturally comes from this interaction — that the beings are some sort of shapeshifters — does not prepare viewers for the far-fetched truth. However, when it does get revealed, Shyamalan at least commits to it.

Although it feels like The Watchers could end roughly 20 minutes before the credits roll, an intense confrontation during the climax is where the film is at its best. The one thing that would’ve made it better is if Shyamalan hadn’t tried to present what could’ve been a natural plot point as a twist, one that wasn’t even set up properly at any point prior. Had she taken time to establish the plot point during the rest of the film, it could’ve been believable. Nevertheless, it feels like another unformed idea in execution that happens without bearing any weight in character growth.

If Shyamalan took another pass on her screenplay for The Watchers, there is a chance it could’ve been something special, especially as a first feature. She demonstrates an understanding of how to craft effective thrills behind the camera, but with the screenplay in its current form, the film feels unfinished. There are elements of a good story seen throughout, but they never come together to form something worthy of viewers’ time and attention. Perhaps if she learns to better trust the audience — and herself, for that matter —her next effort may be worth watching.

Review Courtesy of Evan Miller

Feature Image Credit to Warner Bros. via Variety