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For those who haven't seen Dakota Fanning’s The Watchers, the horror movie is currently trending on Netflix, proving it’s a worthwhile watch. Ishana Night Shyamalan’s directorial debut follows a mysterious woman who, after becoming stranded in the Irish forest, joins an isolated group that is stalked by dangerous creatures. Though The Watchers’ reviews are incredibly mixed, they admit the movie’s strange allure and excellent adaptation of Irish folklore.

Following his father’s footsteps, Night Shyamalan presents a story featuring many twists, suspense, and a larger conspiracy that ties everything together. Despite The Watchers’ ending having a bit of an infamous reputation, it does successfully set up a sequel, which could be based on A. M. Shine’s second book. Notably, The Watchers’ cast is the thriller’s strongest aspect, with Fanning’s character, Mina, benefiting from the actress’ commanding and multilayered on-screen presence and her extensive experience in the genre.

[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,...

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,...

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...

During this year's CinemaCon back in April, audiences were given the first look at the feature directorial debut of Ishana Shyamalan, "The Watchers." Based on the novel of the same name from A.M. Shine, the story centers on an artist named Mina (Dakota Fanning) who gets stranded in the woods in western Ireland. Her only source of refuge is a strange box in the middle of a clearing, where the front wall is a gigantic one-way mirror. She suddenly realizes that she has been trapped with three strangers who have all been in the sanctuary known as "The Coop" for months themselves. Each night, mysterious creatures arrive outside The Coop to watch them from the outside. The group is unable to see the creatures, but the creatures see everything. The film's trailer has wisely kept any other plot details under wraps, allowing Shyamalan's film to entice audiences and creep them out to the fullest extent.

The International Cinematographers Guild hosted its 25th annual Emerging Cinematographer Awards in Los Angeles this past weekend with a luncheon at the ASC Clubhouse on Sept. 29 and an awards ceremony at the Television Academy on Oct. 1.

The awards celebrated the work of eight up-and-coming cinematographers, whose short films were all screened at the Television Academy. Additionally, Stephen Lighthill was awarded the ASC Mentor Award and Janusz Kamiński, Steven Spielberg’s longtime collaborator, was given the Distinguished Filmmaker Award.

The eight awardees included Connor Van Bodell (“Nisei”), Brook Lee Karner (“The Coop”), Petros Antoniadis (“Flickering Souls Set Alight”), Drew Dawson (“For Those Who Don’t Know How”), Grant MacAllister (“Blood Positive”), Edward Guinn (“Torn”), Sarah Anne Pierpont (“Juliet”) and Yusuke Sato (“White Now Please”).

“Neither pandemic nor industry strikes will stop the creative vision of our membership. Congratulations to all the honorees and to our ASC awards recipient,” said Baird B. Steptoe,...

UTA has signed “The Bachelor” alum and “The Viall Files” host Nick Viall for representation in all areas.

The multi-hyphenate personality is best known for starring in the 21st season of ABC’s “The Bachelor,” after participating in three prior seasons of the franchise. Recently, Viall’s podcast “The Viall Files” has received acclaim, being named the number eight podcast of 2019 by The Associated Press, and was also included in iTunes’s “Most Popular Shows of 2019” list.

Viall has also begun to develop a presence as an actor, with a starring turn in Funny or Die’s “The Coop” for Eko, in addition to recent roles in HBO’s “Insecure,” ABC’s “Speechless,” Fox’s “Family Guy,” and TV Land’s “Teachers.”

Viall has additionally partnered with dozens of major brands for TV and social campaigns, including a recent national TV spot for Hotels.com. He is also the founder...

In today’s roundup, Epix releases the first teaser for the Batman-spinoff “Pennyworth” and Funny or Die begins production on an interactive murder mystery.

Dates

The third season of Netflix’s anthology comedy series “Easy” will return on May 10, and the nine-episode run will follow new characters as they navigate love, sex, culture and technology in Chicago. The cast includes Jake Johnson, Sophia Bush, David Franco, Zazie Beetz and Kiersey Clemons.

First Looks

Epix has released the first teaser for “Pennyworth,” the origin story of Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred Pennyworth, played by Jack Bannon. The 10-episode, hour-long drama series will show the early life of the character as he meets Bruce’s father Thomas Wayne in 1960s London. Ben Aldridge, Paloma Faith, Jason Flemyng, Ryan Fletcher, Hainsley Lloyd Bennett, Emma Paetz and Polly Walker round out the cast.

Development

Production has begun for “The Coop” a new interactive series...