Review: The Observers | Houston Press

Describe this film in one Predator Quote:

MAC: I see you.

Brief summary of the plot: There is trouble in the forest, there is trouble with the creeps.

Evaluation using random objects relevant to the film: 2 newts out of 5

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Slogan : “You can’t see them, but they see everything.”

Best slogan: “Who’s watching the…watchers?”

Not-so-brief plot synopsis: Mina (Dakota Fanning) is an American drifter who works at a pet store in Galway, Ireland. She agrees to take a rare bird to Belfast Zoo one day (which happens to be the 15th anniversary of her mother’s death), only to get lost in a dense (and apparently unmapped) forest. After a car breaks down, Mina finds refuge with Ciara (Georgina Campbell), Madeline (Olwen Fouéré) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan), who inform Mina that they are trapped in a house where they are observed every night by creatures known as the name “observers”. “, who have quite strict rules for their captives.

“Critical analysis: The name “Shyamalan” carries certain expectations, for better or worse. Increasingly overused twistendings? Diminishing returns punctuated by occasional moments of brilliance? A tendency to insert oneself into debates? Fair enough for anyone who has watched most of the M. Night movies.

Director Ishana Shyamalan thankfully avoids many of her father’s idiosyncrasies. The observers is simpler than meandering, and it keeps gimmicks to a minimum. Unfortunately, it’s a horror film that isn’t all that scary, and dispels many of the so-called mysteries it poses.

Movies based on esoteric rules of the game like “Don’t open the door after dark” or “Don’t turn your back on the big double-sided mirror that scary monsters use to spy on you” have a rich tradition, since Shout has Zombie Land. But their success depends on the answers to these questions, and when it becomes clear that the rules set out in The observers don’t amount to much, it tends to sabotage the whole project.

Fanning is not well served by either the script or her own talents. One might expect that a person placed in a situation with the prospect of spending the rest of their life in what amounts to captivity and with no hope of escape would respond with some indignation. Mina, on the other hand, seems practically resigned to her fate and leaves right away.

But maybe working in an Irish pet store really sucks.

For a while, we entertain the idea that Mina may not experience reality like the rest of us. Shyamalan gives us plenty of opportunity to hope so, until it becomes clear that the only factor changing the status quo will be a Deus Ex machina or something thrown into the plot pile that we didn’t see coming.

Shyamalan (who wrote the screenplay and directed) presents interesting concepts that are almost simultaneously pushed aside by real-world mechanics. If your supernatural beast movie is going to take place in an otherwise recognizable real world, try to stick to these principles.

The creatures themselves are just as puzzling: despite all their other “talents” (mimicry, shapeshifting), they are apparently incapable of opening a door. Meanwhile, our protagonists decide in the end to forgo all previously imposed limitations in order to maximize the plot’s expediency.

Shyamalan has an eye for scares, but perhaps it’s too much to expect of a first-time director to knock us off our feet the first time, just as it’s too much for the likes of Fanning and Finnegan to elevate a film complies with the rules. scenario. Or The observers Ultimately, the bogging down comes from Shyamalan’s reliance on telling instead of showing. And come to think of it, this tendency to overexplain runs in the family as well.

The Watchers is in theaters today.