The debut movie from Ishana Night Shyamalan has arrived. I have loved many of the films created by her father M. and had been looking forward to seeing what she would do. It is interesting that her first film came out a month before his 21st film “Trap” is set to release. Another I am excited to check out. But this is about Ishana and her film, go away M.

Watchers is a film that explores some Irish folklore ideas surrounding Changelings and Faeries. The main character Mina stumbles into a forest area where she becomes part of a small group of survivors living in “the coop.” There are rules to staying alive in this forest. One of the biggest is that you have to be in the coop before sunset. When darkness falls the Watchers roam the forest.

There are only three others in the coop with Mina: Madeline is the oldest and dispenser of knowledge and rules, Daniel is young and naive and easily led, Ciara is a young woman whose husband left the coop to find help and never came back. The coop has the feel of a shipping container, but with a two way mirror for one entire wall. Inside the coop it’s a mirror, outside is the window side.

Their time inside the coop at night is spent entertaining the Watchers through a two way mirror. I was confused at one point where Ciara was sitting looking at the countryside through the mirror. Not sure why it suddenly was a window on the inside. And why is the coop even there? Eventually there is a bit of explanation as to how the coop came to exist, but I don’t want to spoil that reveal.

Like many of her father’s films there is a lot of interpersonal exploration among the characters. This is a very moody and atmospheric movie. From that perspective it was fantastic. But the overall story did have a certain level of “meh” to it. I am absolutely not knocking her as a creator, like all creators they will have some home runs and some strike outs. For me this was more like a foul ball. And I really look forward to future films from her.

I’m giving this an overall rating of 6 stars. Very glad I got to see it in theaters and support her effort here.

SPOILERS FOLLOW THIS LINE

I don’t want to reveal some of the minor quibbles I had in the main body of the reveal because they are minor but integral to plot elements.

When the Watchers were beating on the mirror one night, it cracked. There was no reason given as to why this massive piece of glass would crack and not shatter.

When the Watchers were beating on the steel door to break in, they push a wooden table up to the door to secure it. This was just dumb. Beings capable of breaking down a steel door wouldn’t be slowed at all by a wooden table. And for that matter, if they wanted in, they could have easily finished the breaking of the window much easier. Pushing the table was only done to reveal the “Lost” style mysterious hatch in the floor. There were many other ways to do this that would have felt more natural for the story. My thought would be Mina find it cleaning or rearranging stuff. She is new, that might be something she would do to pass time. But they couldn’t open it without Daniel muscling it loose, but he was out hunting and they simply had to wait until he got back. Just one idea.

When the three ladies get on the bus, all three of them sit at the same moment in the back seat. Very unnatural looking when it happened. All three were exhausted and weary from their ordeal, they would have practically fallen into the seats. They certainly wouldn’t wait awkwardly until they were all in position to sit. Ironically, immediately after the scene of their synchronized sitting, they talk about what they will do when they get home. And their are open seats between them. Which is how it should have been when they sat down!

Also…….. It made zero sense why Mina drove a route on a one lane dirt path through a forest. I can’t imagine their isn’t an actual road on this trip. From Galway (where she starts the movie) through to Dublin and then north to Belfast is a 4 hour trip (according to Google maps, I haven’t personally driven it). Knowledge of the trip length isn’t something I had at the time of watching, so I don’t know how it was shown. Mina was told her trip was a day trip, but that is vague in many ways.

Again, these are nitpicks and minor quibbles, but I saw the movie alone and didn’t have anyone to gripe with after the lights came up.