The Watch

At the age of nine, Cassie Malloy was kidnapped and locked in a basement for two days. Nineteen years later, the traumatized Cassie (Clea Duvall) studies psychology at the Braxton University and needs to work on her thesis. Cassie decides to accept a four-week job working alone in an isolated fire watch tower in the forest to vanquish her demons from the past. Cassie leaves her best friend Andrea (Elizabeth Whitmere) and travels to the spot, where she meets the forest guard Rhett (James A. Woods) that brings Cassie to the tower. Cassie feels the effect of the isolation and experiences weird things but she is comforted by Polly, the lookout of the east tower. When Rhett visits Cassie, she learns that Polly died five years ago in a fire. Cassie decides to quit her job, but Rhett recalls her that she signed a contract and he needs at least two days to find a replacement. Cassie agrees to stay while Andrea receives a strange phone call for Cassie.

"The Watch" is a tense and claustrophobic thriller, but with a disappointing conclusion. The writer Ben Ripley and the director Jim Donovan lost the opportunity of making a great supernatural story; with minor modifications, giving an ambiguous or a horror ending, this film would be excellent. Nevertheless, Clea Duvall gives a great performance in the role of a woman traumatized in her childhood that wants to defeat her demons. The talented Elizabeth Whitmere is not only a beautiful and sexy actress, but has a wonderful voice. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Passado de Horror" ("Past of Horror")

A good honest TV Horror movie. Clea DuVall plays Cassie, a girl who at the age of 7 was traumatised by her kidnapping and imprisonment in a dingy basement. 20 years later at grad school, Cassie is struggling to finish her thesis on time, so takes up a job as as fire-watch warden out in the forest so as to earn some money while having the peace and calm to finish her project. But soon the isolation brings back traumas she though had long since past, more so when it appears that someone or some thing is definitely out to get her.

It's a pretty shaky premise, the whole face your fear factor in the name of setting up a horror story, asking of us a giant leap of faith to believe Cassie really would go live out in the woods on her own. While the narrative plays its hand way too early, something which doesn't help the sub-standard resolution. However, there's some good scares and originality thrown in for good measure, while DuVall is a good value actress when it comes to portraying the various stages of fight and flight. 6.5/10

First of all, this film is the first horror for a long time to give me chills. Some scenes are genuinely spooky. Unfortunately it peters out in the last third! The setting is perfect, a young woman isolated in a forest, completely alone. It is built up slowly, but felt just right, the early 'shock' moments work well. In fact, it built up perfectly, so much that I was thinking this could be a great film! But then, there is always 'the twist'. Most twists are at least intriguing, some are brilliant, this one kills the film. And the ending is well....kinda not in the film.

If I was to draw a graph on the films enjoyment level, it would be a slow consistent incline, then a sharp decline in the last 3rd, kinda like a ramp.

could of been so much better.

5/10

I have just wasted over an hour watching this totally predictable, 'with a hope that it would get better' excuse of a film. Made for TV or not, I watched it based on the last persons review on this site (more than not, I can pretty much get the gist of a film from the reviews on this site) and I'm not even going to waste any more time to tell you how disappointed I am.

So, this is your WARNING - unless you really want a mind numbing time, don't bother. It's not worth your while, no really... I mean it. I can't even pull out any 'best bits', oh, if you like looking at beautiful colourful trees then this films for you - because there's really nothing more to it than that! And that was me being generous.

If you like trees & forests, you'll just enjoy this movie.

If you are looking for a "Horror" movie ... I'm sorry to tell you that you came to the totally wrong place.

The movie's first and second part are totally horror-less ,,, & the last part contains just some tiny little horror scenes, which are not scary "at all".

The movie would have been better if the last part was just removed & was replaced with some social , self-curing scenes. The movie then can be classified as a drama & everyone would have been happy ... but a "horror" ?? Oh, come on of course Not!

So, if you want to relax for a while & watch some beautiful scenes, watch it ... else, just don't waste your time !