News

Netflix continues to dominate the streaming sphere, and frankly it's not hard to see why. The streamer pumps out so much so-called "content" that I'm starting to wonder whether half of this stuff isn't already being generated by some god awful AI. Still, amid the onslaught of media, Netflix put out some pretty good films in 2024, most notably the killer action thriller "Rebel Ridge," which surely went a long way to helping star Aaron Pierre land the role of John Stewart in DC and James Gunn's burgeoning shared universe.

Netflix started 2025 strong, too, proving that streaming audiences still know a good film when they see one by delivering Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" to its servers and seeing it shoot to the top of the charts. No doubt the rest of the year will see more of the same quality filmmaking punctuating a sea of otherwise forgettable streaming slush. But...

The supernatural horror film The Watchers spends a ton of screentime with a small group of individuals trapped in a mysterious and dangerous forest, so the talented cast is understandably small. The Watchers is the feature film directorial debut of Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of the iconic director M. Night Shyamalan. The movie follows a young American immigrant in Ireland, Mina, who becomes trapped with others in a forest that is home to nocturnal creatures known as Watchers, whose appearance remains a mystery to anyone who hasn't encountered them.

Mina and her fellow survivors remain trapped in a concrete bunker at night, which keeps them safe from the creatures, but also allows the creatures to observe their activities and behavior. The Watchers is heavy on dread and atmosphere-building, and as is expected, includes a trademark "Shyamalan twist", although it is based on the novel of the same name by A.M. Shine.

One of this year's horror movie flops is now getting a second chance on streaming. The Watchers is a horror thriller from Ishana Night Shyamalan in her feature film directorial debut, and it is streaming now on Max. Based on the novel by A.M. Shine. The Watchers features a mysterious premise and shocking twists, and finds Ishana is following in the footsteps of her legendary father, M. Night Shyamalan, who serves as a producer.

In the film, an American artist named Mina (Dakota Fanning) gets lost in a dense forest in Ireland, but finds an older woman and a bunker called "The Coop." Mina learns the people in "The Coop" are being "watched" by unseen strangers through a mirrored window. Not following the rules or leaving "The Coop" means death, and Mina must find a way to escape her mysterious captors. The Watchers also features a twist ending that might...

The Watchers is heading to Max. The Ishana Night Shyamalan-directed supernatural horror film is set to drop onto the streaming platform before the end of the month.

Max will become the exclusive streaming home of The Watchers beginning August 30, 2024. Based on the 2021 novel by A.M. Shine, the M. Night Shyamalan-produced movie follows Mina (Dakota Fanning), a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night. You cant see them, but they see everything. The Watchers also stars Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouere.

Related Dakota Fanning Goes On Display in Creepy Trailer for Ishana Shyamalan's The Watchers

Ishana Shyamalan's directorial debut film The Watchers, starring Dakota Fanning, drops its first trailer.

After being a second unit director on her father's films...

The Watchers, one of the year's greatest disappointments in the horror genre, is heading to Max and will start streaming next week on August 30. The film, directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, had a short run in theaters after Warner Bros. went for a wide theatrical release, but it ultimately flopped after barely crossing the $33 million barrier on a $30 million budget.

The film follows Mina (Dakota Fanning), a young American woman living in Ireland and struggling to overcome the traumatic death of her mother. Unable to cope more than a decade after the tragic incident, Mina is estranged from her twin sister. While running an errand for her boss, Mina's car breaks down in the middle of the road, and she has no choice but to enter the woods, where she becomes lost.

What follows is Mina's encounter with three mysterious strangers who talk about the Watchers, ghostly creatures that live...

Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema’s The Watchers will make its global streaming debut Friday, August 30 exclusively on Max. From producer M. Night Shyamalan comes The Watchers, written for the screen and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan and based on the novel by A.M. Shine. The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night. You can’t see them, but they see everything. The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan ... Read more...

Max announced this morning that The Watchers, Warner Bros/New Line’s supernatural thriller from first-time feature filmmaker Ishana Night Shyamalan, will begin streaming globally, exclusively on Max, on Friday, August 30.

The film hits streaming following a disappointing theatrical release kicking off in June, which resulted in less than $33 million in box office receipts.

An adaptation of the 2021 gothic horror novel by A.M. Shine, starring Dakota Fanning, who’s currently up for an Emmy for her work on Netflix’s miniseries Ripley, The Watchers tells the story of Mina (Fanning), a 28-year-old artist who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers that are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night. You can’t see them, but they see everything.

Shyamalan — daughter of M. Night — directed from her own script, with Georgina Campbell (Barbarian), Oliver Finnegan...

Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema’s The Watchers will make its global streaming debut on Friday, August 30, exclusively on Max.

The Watchers was rated PG-13 for violence, terror, and some thematic elements. The film has grossed $32.9 million at the global box office, with $19 million coming from domestic theaters and $13.9 million from international markets.

Based on A.M. Shine’s novel of the same name, the film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland.

When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night. You can’t see them, but they see everything.

The supernatural horror movie was written for the screen and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan. The Watchers opened in North American theaters on June 7, 2024.

The film stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouere.

M. Night Shyamalan,...

We have good news to share, horror fans. The Watchers has finally set its streaming debut release date. As expected, the supernatural horror film is coming to Max, and it'll be available to stream sooner than you think. How soon, you ask? In just a week!

Yes, you read that right. On Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, you'll be able to watch this 1 hour and 42-minute movie on the Max streaming service. In fact, it'll be streaming exclusively on this streamer. However, if you'd rather rent or purchase the film, you can still do so on digital platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu, or Apple TV.

The Watchers was written and helmed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, the daughter of well-known filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. It's based on the 2021 book of the same name by A. M. Shine and follows a young woman who finds herself stranded in the woods after her car suddenly breaks down.

You can’t see them, but they see everything in director Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature debut, The Watchers. If you missed it in theaters, it’s coming to Max later this month.

The Watchers will begin streaming exclusively on Max on Friday, August 30.

Until then, you can rent or buy The Watchers on all major VOD outlets. Ishana Night Shyamalan’s horror movie will also be released on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray, and DVD on August 27.

The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Georgina Campbell (Barbarian), Oliver Finnegan (“Creeped Out”), and Olwen Fouere (The Northman).

The mystery-horror film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan and Nimitt Mankad.

Spoilers ahead for The Watchers.

Months after Ishana Night Shyamalan's directorial debut, The Watchers, bored critics and audiences alike, the story will continue in the form of a book. The upcoming release, Stay in the Light, will be a sequel to the film written by A.M. Shine. Hitting shelves on October 22, Stay in the Light promises to expand on the world of Mina and her fight against the Watchers. Meanwhile, struggling filmmakers who don't benefit from nepotism crowdsource or mortgage their homes to try and get a tiny movie barely released on VOD. Hurray for Hollywood!

Stay in the Light picks right up where The Watchers left off, with Mina having escaped her captors. This sequel will delve deeper into her psychological battle for survival. The novel's synopsis teases a suspenseful continuation, saying, "After her terrifying experience at the hands of the Watchers, Mina has escaped to a cottage...

The Watchers book and film share some similarities, but there are also notable differences. The movie adds some important elements to the lore established in the novel. The movie makes a crucial change to The Watchers' original ending

Warning: This article contains Major Spoilers for The Watchers and the book on which it's based.The 2024 film The Watchers is based on a 2022 horror-lit book of the same name by A.M. Shine, with some significant changes made to the source material. The lore in the book and film originates from Irish folklore of faeries and changelings, which A.M. Shine grew familiar with from his history degree from the University of Galway in Ireland. The film was adapted and directed by Ishana Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night. The Watchers book and film both have mixed reviews, with many of the movie's changes to the story proving particularly contentious.

The book and...

The movie world has a new Shyamalan on the block – Ishana Shyamalan, daughter of renowned filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. Her latest imaginative horror film, “The Watchers”, serves up a display of compelling cinematography and a creative screenplay.

An extension of her father’s successful legacy in the world of mystery and fantasy, Ishana offers a captivating performance in this film, starring Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouere.

Plot Overview: “The Watchers”

In an enigmatic Irish forest, people mysteriously vanish. A girl finds herself lost in it and thereby discovers three mysterious inhabitants in a refuge. Each night, enigmatic creatures visit them.

The Watchers About the Movie

Ishana Shyamalan’s “The Watchers” is a stylish, imaginative film that takes risks in its storyline. Much like her well-known father, Ishana manages to present a wonderfully different horror-fantasy movie, fascinating when it needs to be, and deceptively predictable when, in reality,...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

The Gingerdead Man Blu-ray from Full Moon

The Gingerdead Man slices into Blu-ray on August 13 via Full Moon Features. The 2005 slasher has been newly remastered in high definition from the original elements. Pre-orders are live for only $17.51.

B-movie maven Charles Band directs from a script by Domonic Muir. Gary Busey stars as the titular killer cookie alongside Robin Sydney, Jonathan Chase, Alexia Aleman, Margaret Blye, James Snyder, and Larry Cedar.

Special features include: a behind the scenes featurette; blooper reel; and trailers.

Glow-in-the-Dark Ghost Face from Living Dead Dolls

Entertainment Earth exclusively carries a limited edition version of Living Dead Dolls’ Ghost Face with a bloody, glow-in-the-dark mask.

The 10″ doll has 5 points of articulation and...

New to theaters, ‘The Watchers’, was adapted from a novel by A.M. Shine, and is the film debut of writer and director Ishana Night Shyamalan. The film stars actors: Dakota Fanning (Mina), Georgina Campbell (Ciara), Olwen Fouéré (Madeline), and Oliver Finnegan (Daniel). ‘The Watchers’ delivers an eerie and suspenseful atmosphere with solid performances, though it leans more on suspense than outright horror. The main antagonist within the film involves the peculiar beings that live in the forest, in which four scared strangers have found themselves trapped. The deadly creatures that are natural inhabitants of the forest only come out once the sun sets, but the characters find refuge in a peculiar, multi-faceted cabin “The Coop” with a two-way mirror where the creatures gather at night to observe them. Mina, lost in the woods on her way to work, becomes the latest addition to the captured crew and learns that they...

M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan made her feature directorial debut with a thriller called The Watchers, which received a June 7th theatrical release, courtesy of Warner Bros. / New Line Cinema. (You can read our review Here and watch our interviews with the director and cast members Here.) The movie did not enjoy the sort of box office success many of the elder Shyamalan’s films have, drawing in just over $25 million worldwide so far. But maybe it will reach a wider audience with its digital release, which is just one week away. Media Play News reports that on June 28th, three weeks after it reached theatres, The Watchers will be available to watch in the comfort of your own home. The 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD release will follow on August 27th.

Ishana Night Shyamalan wrote the screenplay for The Watchers, based on a novel by...

You can’t see them, but they see everything in director Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature debut, The Watchers. And if you missed The Watchers in theaters, you can watch at home as soon as next week.

The Watchers opened in theaters on June 7 and will be available on premium video on demand on Friday, June 28, 2024.

Warner Bros. Discovery also revealed in the press release for the film’s at home streaming release that The Watchers will be released on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray, and DVD on August 27.

The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Georgina Campbell (Barbarian), Oliver Finnegan (“Creeped Out”), and Olwen Fouere (The Northman).

The...

Who watches "The Watchers"? Unfortunately, the answer to that is: Not nearly as many moviegoers as writer/director Ishana Night Shyamalan probably would've liked for her debut feature. As /Film's Ryan Scott laid out in his box office reporting, the younger Shyamalan's folk horror film couldn't quite duplicate the consistent theatrical success of her famous father, continuing 2024's downward trend of buzzy-sounding titles struggling to live up to expectations among general audiences and genre fans. Granted, the mixed reviews likely didn't help its cause, including one by yours truly (which you can read here) that nonetheless pointed out the immense amount of promise and potential on display for Shyamalan's future efforts. But for those who were scared off by the critical reception or the spooky premise the first time around, curious viewers will soon get their chance to catch the movie from home in very little time at all.

Those...

Madeline's vague past and extensive forest knowledge hint at her true identity as a Changeling. Mina's suspicions of Madeline grow as she unravels the mystery while the others remain oblivious. The final twist reveals Madeline's true nature and her connection to Professor Burke's disturbing goals.

Warning: this article contains spoilers for The Watchers.The Watchers is not one of the best horror movies of 2024, but it has a big twist in the final act that is thoroughly hinted at even before the characters converge. After becoming trapped in a seemingly inescapable forest, Dakota Fanning's Mina becomes suspicious of Olwen Four's Madeline. The other two who are trapped with them have followed Madelines direction since she is the only one in the group with any answers. They're willing to chalk it all up to Madeline having been stuck in this situation the longest and picking up rules and tricks to survive.

Warning: major "The Watchers" spoilers.

Critics underrate The Watchers despite strong performances and character development. Ishana Night Shyamalan shows promise as a horror director, delivering a consistent film. The Watchers is more than its big twist, exploring themes of humanity, grief, and vulnerability.

The Watchers hasnt been well-received by critics so far, but its a lot better than what its current Rotten Tomatoes score suggests. 2024 has an interesting variety of horror movies coming up, from original stories to sequels and remakes and adaptations of other works, as well. Falling into the latter category is The Watchers, directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan and based on the 2022 novel of the same name by A. M. Shine. The Watchers takes the audience to Ireland to follow American immigrant Mina (Dakota Fanning), who works in a pet shop and is tasked with delivering a parrot.

When her car breaks down and she becomes stranded in a vast forest,...

Another weekend in the books, another disappointing opening for a much-anticipated horror movie. Warner Bros. released Ishana Night Shyamalan's "The Watchers" in theaters this past weekend, and given that the daughter of "The Sixth Sense" director M. Night Shyamalan was getting into the family business, there was excitement around this one. Unfortunately, the end result left much to be desired in the early going, both critically and commercially.

"The Watchers" opened to an estimated $7 million in its debut domestically. It opened against "Bad Boys: Ride or Die," which easily won the weekend with an impressive $56.5 million opening. Unfortunately, even though this seemed like an example of solid counterprogramming, Shyamalan's mysterious horror flick landed at number four on the charts, also placing behind "The Garfield Movie" ($10 million) and "If" ($8 million). Those movies were in their third and fourth weekends, respectively. Needless to say, this isn't what WB had in mind.

[This story contains spoilers for The Watchers.]

As an artist, it’s no easy task to define oneself, to showcase a perspective and style that differentiates you from others. And it’s always that “other” that looms large, impacting your and everyone else’s perceptions of you. This is certainly the case for Mina (Dakota Fanning), a young, directionless artist whose car breaks down in the ancient woods of Ireland where she finds herself lost, in more ways than one, in The Watchers, based on the novel by A.M. Shine.

The film marks the feature debut of 24-year-old Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of cinematic storyteller, M. Night Shyamalan. The younger Shyamalan cut her teeth as a producer and director on her father’s the Apple+ series Servant, and as second-unit director on M. Night’s beach horror feature, Old (2021). With The Watchers, Ishana Shyamalan sets out to define herself as her own artist, while her father’s shadow,...

Ishana Night Shyamalan reflects on the potential sequel to The Watchers, expressing interest in genre exploration, though admitting it's too early to consider it. Reviews for the horror-thriller, which marks Shyamalan's directorial debut, have been generally negative, particularly for its convoluted storytelling and lackluster ending. In spite of her uncertainty and the reviews, the ending does leave enough room for a sequel, and should the first movie become a box office hit, The Watchers 2 could find its way to being greenlit.

With her directorial debut now in theaters, Ishana Night Shyamalan shares her thoughts on The Watchers 2. Based on A.M. Shine's novel of the same name, the horror-thriller tells the story of Mina, a 28-year-old American artist who finds herself trapped in an expansive forest in western Ireland and surrounded by the titular mysterious creatures. Dakota Fanning leads the ensemble Watchers cast that also includes Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan,...

Spoilers for The Watchers (2024)

Mina's hallucinations in The Watchers are linked to her traumatic past, specifically her guilt over her mother's death and her sister's scarring. The shapeshifting creatures in the film take on different forms for different characters, with Mina seeing her twin sister as a child. Ishana Night Shyamalan's directorial debut builds towards a plot twist ending, influenced by her father's success in the horror genre.

Throughout The Watchers, Mina sees a small girl running around in the forest, and it's never made completely clear who it is. The 2024 supernatural horror film is the directorial debut of Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, who popularized the genre with films like The Sixth Sense. Like many of her father's movies, Ishana Night Shyamalan builds The Watchers toward a plot twist ending, though many important character details contribute to the narrative along the way.

As of...

The enduring irony of M. Night Shyamalan’s cinema is that no matter how much he believes in the power and magic of storytelling, he nearly always struggles to spin a good yarn. The tin-eared dialogue, the crude sentimentality, and the compulsive overreliance on tension and startling-for-their-own-sake (and often tension-deflating) left turns are all part of what we’ve come to understand as distinctly Shyamalan-esque. And now, they’re present and accounted for in The Watchers, the debut feature of his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan.

Dakota Fanning stars as Mina, an American living in Galway, Ireland, who spends her time, no doubt as a consequence of her traumatic past, donning wigs and lying to men in bars between shifts at the local pet shop. When she’s tasked with delivering a gorgeous golden conure parrot to a zoo in Belfast, Mina takes the opportunity for some time away but, when her car breaks down,...

Here’s a look at this week’s biggest premieres, parties and openings in Los Angeles and New York, including events for House of the Dragon, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Clipped and The Watchers.

The Watchers premiere

Writer/director Ishana Night Shyamalan premiered her directorial debut in NYC on Sunday, alongside father M. Night Shyamalan and stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré and Oliver Finnegan.

M. Night Shyamalan, Alistair Brammer, Olwen Fouéré, Dakota Fanning, Ishana Night Shyamalan, Georgina Campbell and Oliver Finnegan

House of the Dragon premiere

Showrunner Ryan Condal and stars Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Tom Glynn-Carney and Ewan Mitchell debuted season 2 of the Game of Thrones prequel in NYC on Monday.

Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy and showrunner Ryan Condal Fabien Frankel

Clipped premiere

FX celebrated the premiere of Clipped in downtown Los Angeles on Monday,...

Warning: In case the headline didn't give it away, this article contains major spoilers for "The Watchers."

Stop me if you've heard this one before: There's a new horror movie directed by a filmmaker with the last name Shyamalan that's about creepy (and possibly supernatural) threats in the middle of a secluded forest ... and, yes, there's a big plot twist hiding in plain sight. Reactions thus far have been rather divisive, as you can see from my rather mixed review for /Film, and the sense of atmosphere and tone certainly feel consistent with someone who received their film-school crash course while serving as a second-unit director on M. Night Shyamalan's 2021 film "Old" and a director on several episodes of his streaming series "Servant," but that's pretty much where the similarities between father and daughter end.

Ishana Night Shyamalan's debut feature "The Watchers" is very much abiding by its own rules entirely.

Based on a novel by Irish author A.M. Shine, writer-director Ishana Night Shyamalan’s The Watched — known as The Watchers in some territories — feels like a companion piece to her father M Night Shyamalan's Knock At The Cabin. Again, we’re deep in literal and metaphorical woods and a random set of strangers gather for momentous, ominous purpose. In Knock, things got less interesting the more was revealed. This goes the other way — to the extent that the premise sold in the trailer is rather underdone (little is made of the situation where abductees are on display all the time). But when the claustrophobia lets up, the story takes off in fresh, unsettling directions. It feels like a pilot for a series, setting out more mythology than it can explore.

Things are off-kilter even in the normal life of our hero Mina (Dakota Fanning): she’s working without...

The “Summer of Shyamalan” kicks off with Ishana Night Shyamalan's The Watchers, a misguided mixture of compelling Celtic folk horror and choppy storytelling. In a rare spot of Dewey Cox logic, it's a movie that's both too long and too short. Shyamalan's feature debut boasts a keen directorial eye—shot composition is that of a resourceful veteran—but it's a film at odds. Irish influences grate against predictable horror tropes, diminishing the allure of historical mythology about faes, changelings, and other forest creatures that may or may not be gathering outside a double-sided window that provides no answers (at first).

Dakota Fanning stars as Mina, an American woman hiding from the world amidst Galway's anonymity. She's tasked with transporting a parrot from the pet shop where she's employed to a client, but gets lost in a dense western Ireland forest along the way. After some wandering, the afternoon turns to nightfall,...

Folk horror aims for the darkest parts of our imaginations. The creatures that dwell out of sight can frighten and speak to larger cultural concerns. Ishana Shyamalan tackles the genre in her debut feature, The Watchers. With some interesting mythical characters, The Watchers touches on some interesting topics. However, a frustrating screenplay and questionable structure sink the film, especially in its final act.

SUGGESTEDHorror Film, Barbarian, Will Receive a Video Game Adaptation From Diversion3 Entertainment The Watchers Plot

Mina (Dakota Fanning) continues to struggle with the death of her mother. More than fifteen years after a car accident, she remains estranged from her sister. When her boss at the pet store asks her to deliver a bird to the zoo, Mina takes the gig to avoid facing her grief. However, after her car breaks down in the woods, she becomes trapped in a bunker with three strangers. Outside the shelter,...

Plot: A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

Review: There’s no denying that there’s a tremendous amount of pressure on writer/director Ishana Shyamalan with her debut feature. Her father’s reputation will always follow her but let’s not pretend like that’s entirely a bad thing. Unlike many first-time directors, she was able to hone her craft as a 2nd Unit Director on many M Night productions. This allows her to skip some of the steps common for most young filmmakers, and avoid easy trappings. If there’s one thing that’s clear after experiencing The Watchers: we most definitely have two Shyamalans out in the world, for better or worse.

And it goes without saying that I’ll be avoiding spoilers as...

After collaborating with her father -- prolific filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan -- behind the camera on Apple TV+'s Servant, Ishana Night Shyamalan comes into her own with The Watchers, a new supernatural horror movie that demonstrates her unique talent for making viewers fear the unknown. This is true, at least for the first half, which makes expert use of minimal sets and sound design to construct an omnipresent, ever-watching threat in the forests of Ireland that one cannot escape, let alone kill. Sadly, this tension is undercut by its final act, which explains too much about the threat, transitioning into more of a drama than a thriller. This, in turn, leaves The Watchers feeling like it didn't live up to its full potential and promise.

Based on A.M. Shine's book of the same name, The Watchers follows Dakota Fanning as Mina, an artist working a dead-end job in a pet store in Galway,...

So, is it The Watchers or is it The Watched? In North America it’s the former, in the UK and Ireland it’s the latter, and it’s a testament to the all-over-the-shop plotting of Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature debut that it doesn’t really make much difference whichever way you look at it. Working from a folk-horror novel by A.M. Shine, Shyamalan takes a simple single-location genre premise — literally, it’s a cabin-in-the-woods story — and somehow creates a thriller that’s both unnecessarily complex and almost entirely uninteresting.

Alarm bells ring when the curtain rises, and a voiceover tells us of the forest that’s not on any map, that draws in lost souls “like a moth to a flame” and is so deadly that “those that wander in never come back out”. To illustrate this, we see a stranded backpacker — whose identity we learn later — running...

Hollywood and nepotism are two things that go hand in hand it seems. While the concept of nepotism is not new, recently it has gained more traction as more and more people are pointing out how every other actor that gets inducted into the Hollywood regime turns out to be a son, a daughter, a niece or nephew of another Hollywood personality.

M. Night Shyamalan | Credits: Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore

M. Night Shyamalan is a name in the directorial world that fans clamor to, especially when it comes to the horror and thriller genre. His movies like The Sixth Sense, Split, Glass, Unbreakable, and so many more have made him a name in the industry. Actors and audiences alike are amazed by his incredible filmmaking, who is known to be one of the very best working in the directorial field in Hollywood. And now, his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan seems...

The WatchersImage: Warner Bros.

When a filmmaker is just starting out, it’s good to get a few out for practice. If you’re a nobody, these exercises take place in obscurity. But if you’re the daughter of the guy who made The Sixth Sense, your wobbly baby steps...

The famed director acts as producer for his offspring’s directorial debut but her tale of mythical creatures in the Irish woods goes from intriguing to absurd

It’s a big year for the Shyamalan clan, bullishly expanding into the spotlight with such runaway speed that one assumes an accompanying reality show might also be in the offing. This summer, singer Saleka Shyamalan will star as a pop star in her father M Night’s Josh Hartnett-led thriller Trap, having previously contributed songs for his Apple show Servant and 2021 thriller Old. Before that, the Oscar-nominated film-maker is also ushering his daughter Ishana’s directorial debut into cinemas, Irish fantasy horror The Watchers (weirdly retitled The Watched for the UK and Ireland), his middle child having already worked with him on both the big and small screen. It’s hard to separate her film entirely from such lineage; in fact...

Legendary filmmaker and master of the plot twist, M. Night Shyamalan, acts as producer for this serviceable horror offering from his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan. Titled The Watched in the UK and Ireland – it is known by The Watchers elsewhere – the film is an adaptation of the gothic novel by the same name by Irish writer A. M. Shine.

The film stars Dakota Fanning, Olwen Fouéré, Georgina Campbell (Barbarian) and Oliver Finnegan (Outlander).

Mina (Fanning), a troubled young artist working in a pet shop in the Republic of Ireland is tasked with delivering a parrot bought by a customer on the other side of the country. A couple of hours into her journey, Mina gets stranded in an mysterious, untouched forest when her car breaks down.

Lost in the forest with the sun about to set, Mina becomes the target of mysterious creatures. When she comes across a shelter in the forest,...

“The Watchers” is the first film directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, the 24-year-old daughter of M. Night Shyamalan. Its title refers to a race of spindly ash-gray monsters who haunt an Irish woods, gathering at night around a concrete fortress where the film’s four characters have holed up in a state of semi-permanent refuge. The building has just one room, an entire wall of which is a two-way mirror through which the Watchers peer, all because..they like to watch.

At the same time, the title could almost be referring to anyone who will watch this movie with eyes on the inevitable question of how much of a chip off the old Shyamalan block it is. Is “The Watchers” a glossy/clever mystery horror thriller? Yes. Did Ishana Night Shyamalan, whose father is one of the producers, write the movie as well as direct it? Yes (though she adapted...

There’s a simplicity to writer/director Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature debut, The Watchers, an adaptation of the novel by A.M. Shine. The horror fairy tale traps four strangers in a mysterious forest untethered from reality, where they must observe a handful of straightforward rules to appease the inhuman things that come to observe them every night. It’s a setup that presents fertile ground to mine chills from Irish folklore and psychological distress, but Shyamalan gets too caught up in mythological exposition to instill any tension or scares.

The Watchers follows Mina (Dakota Fanning), an aloof loner who fled from her past traumas and mistakes to Ireland, where she doodles away at her quiet job at a pet store. Mina’s past remains a closely guarded secret, but it’s clear the distance has done nothing to close those wounds. Naturally, she finds herself confronting her past in...

The Watchers' twist ending ruins the entire film's flow and logic. The story, despite its intriguing elements, is inconsistent and disappointing. The solid performances of the ensemble cast cannot save the film from its flaws.

Following in her father M. Night Shyamalans footsteps, Ishana Night Shyamalan makes her directorial debut with The Watchers, a horror film that is intriguing at points, wildly inconsistent at others. One things for sure, and thats the Shyamalans love of a twist ending unravels everything for The Watchers. Rather than be a fascinating exploration of changeling mythology and lore, the younger Shyamalan, who also wrote the script, held onto the most crucial piece of information until the very end, warping all that came before.

The Watchers

DirectorIshana ShyamalanRelease DateJune 7, 2024Studio(s)New Line CinemaDistributor(s)Warner Bros. PicturesWritersA.M. Shine, Ishana ShyamalanCastDakota FanningRatingPG-13Runtime102 minutesGenresMystery, Horror, Fantasy Expand

The last 15 minutes completely lost me, and...

Some of the most boldly assured first features by women in the past 20 years have been horror. Think Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook, Julia Ducournau’s Raw or Rose Glass’ Saint Maud. On the strength of The Watchers, Ishana Night Shyamalan, the 23-year-old daughter of You Know Who, fails to make that list, despite having what appear to be considerable resources thrown at her. While Dakota Fanning does yeoman’s work in the central role, this is basically the usual Irish hooey about faeries and changelings and other pesky entities dressed up in ponderous Jungian doubles theory.

Produced by dad M. Night Shyamalan and adapted from the novel by West Irish author A.M. Shine (apparently a real name), the movie charges right into its souped-up atmospherics, accompanied by Abel Korzeniowski’s hyperventilating score.

Eli Arenson’s camera tracks a panicked man (Alistair Brammer), hurtling through a dense forest in the...

The notion of seeing the "Shyamalan" name attached to any given title has always been as fascinating a journey as the films themselves. Anyone who was (unfairly) crowned "The Next Spielberg" at such an early juncture was probably doomed to have that follow them for the rest of their career, but M. Night Shyamalan managed to rewrite his own ending multiple times over, improbably enough: first weathering his status as an up-and-coming visionary, then becoming something of a pariah through the inevitable dry spell that seemed to cement his reputation, and finally culminating with several stripped-down, yet quintessentially Shyamalan hits in a row. Perhaps it's only fitting, then, that the next phase in this twisting odyssey has now arrived — this time, in the form of the next generation of Shyamalan storytellers.

Ishana Night Shyamalan's feature debut "The Watchers" will inevitably draw comparisons to her father's body of work, though...

A well-paced supernatural horror movie that’s built atop a high-concept premise, sustained by impressively elegant direction, hobbled by some of the clunkiest dialogue you’ve ever heard (to say nothing of the non-characters forced to speak it), and then undone by a twist ending so clearly telegraphed from the start that it might as well have been sent to the third act by Western Union, “The Watchers” offers ample evidence to suggest that first-time feature director Ishana Night Shyamalan — of the M. Night Shyamalans — probably wasn’t the most rebellious of children.

If there’s much about her debut that left me wishing the apple had fallen a little further from the tree, there’s also no denying that the “Unbreakable” filmmaker’s daughter has the skill to follow in her father’s footsteps, which she does here even when the material is begging her to blaze her own trail.

“Try not to die!”

When Dakota Fanning’s Mina prepares for a night out with a bird on loan from the pet shop, she gives him that warning in jest before bolting out the door. Little does she know, the sunny yellow bird will soon parrot that phrase back to her as she faces unimaginable horrors deep in the woods of Ireland.

Thankfully, the real bird had a more calming presence on set. “Her real name was Sunshine. She was great! Easygoing. No problems. Got a lot of attention. Everyone really loved her and took really good care of her. She was munching on blueberries most of the time in her little cage,” Fanning says of her feathered co-star.

“The Watchers,” in theaters Friday from Warner Bros., follows Mina as she finds herself trapped in the forest with three strangers, forced to abide by the rules of mysterious malevolent creatures each night.

In the new thriller The Watchers, a group of strangers are brought together by unexpected circumstances. Written and directed by Ishana Shyamalan, the creepy story features Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouere, and Oliver Finnegan. And frankly, it’s not hard to see a little inspiration from when it comes to the strange and mysterious tale it tells. What are “The Watchers?” Well, I won’t spoil it here, but like the tagline claims, they see everything. I recently sat down for a few terrific interviews with Ms. Dakota Fanning, as well as Georgina Campbell and the storyteller, Ishana Shyamalan. It was an absolute pleasure chatting with all three. Having spoken to both Fanning and Campbell previously, it was nice to discuss their latest. The two actors opened up about being pulled into this world and working with a director telling a different kind of story. Both of these talents...

Despite her age, Dakota Fanning may very well be one of the most experienced actors on any given set. Her big-screen career began at the mere age of seven when she shared scenes with Hollywood heavyweights like Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer in I Am Sam.

Justin Chatwin, Dakota Fanning and Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds (2005)

As Fanning takes on her latest role in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Watchers, it’s worth considering how her earlier experience in the horror genre, namely Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, may have influenced her acting approach. This latest foray into the supernatural with The Watchers offers an opportunity to explore the impact of those early experiences on Fanning’s acting repertoire.

How Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds Impacted Dakota Fanning’s Career

Steven Spielberg‘s War of the Worlds holds a special place in Dakota Fanning‘s heart.

Update: An 8 minute preview of The Watchers has just arrived online and can be seen in the embed above! The original article follows:

M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan has made her feature directorial debut with a thriller called The Watchers, which is set to receive a June 7th theatrical release, courtesy of Warner Bros. / New Line Cinema. During an interview with Games Radar, M. Night Shyamalan confirmed that he was his daughter’s second unit director on The Watchers, and that the experience changed him as a filmmaker.

The elder Shyamalan said directing second unit for his daughter was “the same job I’ve done my whole life but with a different intention. I have to deliver for [Ishana]. It’s not something I came up with; it’s something she came up with. That created a different engine for me, when I was directing those scenes for her.

Caption: (L-r) Olwen FOUÉRÉ, Director/Writer Ishana Shyamalan, Oliver Finnegan and Georgina Campbell on the set of New Line Cinema’s and Warner Bros. Pictures’ fantasy thriller “The Watchers,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Copyright: © 2024 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. Celebrated filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, known for crafting suspenseful thrillers like Signs and The Sixth Sense, is beaming with pride. His daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan, has just made her directorial debut with the chilling horror film, The Watchers, which she also wrote.

While M. Night is a producer on the film, he’s been careful to let Ishana take the creative lead. M. Night acknowledges the challenge of separating his role as a proud father from that of an experienced producer. However, his respect for Ishana’s artistic vision is evident, witnessing Ishana boldly follow in his footsteps has been deeply moving for him. (Click on the media bar below to hear M.

While some parents try to shield their children from horror movies, you might have a different experience if your father is M. Night Shyamalan.

Ishana Night Shyamalan, the 24-year-old middle daughter of The Sixth Sense and Split director, celebrated the premiere of her own feature directorial debut The Watchers in New York on Sunday. Like her father before her, her first feature combines elements of the horror and fantasy genres. Shyamalan penned the script herself, adapting the story from the gothic horror novel of the same name by A.M. Shine.

The Watchers follows Mina (played by Dakota Fanning), an artist who finds herself held captive in an isolated house in the woods of Ireland with three strangers; the group is regularly observed by mysterious creatures through one-way glass.

“As a reader, I just felt completely compelled and enamored by the story,” the younger Shyamalan told The Hollywood Reporter. “My brain...

Take a look at more footage from “The Watchers”, live-action, supernatural thriller written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, starring Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell and Oliver Finnegan, releasing June 7, 2024 in theaters:

“…’Mina’ is a young artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

‘You can’t see them, but they see everything…”

Click the images to enlarge…...