The Watchers

The Watchers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ishana Night Shyamalan
Produced by	M. Night Shyamalan Ashwin Rajan Nimitt Mankad
Written by	Ishana Night Shyamalan
Based on	The Watchers by A. M. Shine
Starring	Dakota Fanning Georgina Campbell Oliver Finnegan Olwen Fouéré
Music by	Abel Korzeniowski
Cinematography	Eli Arenson
Edited by	Job ter Burg
Studio	New Line Cinema Blinding Edge Pictures Inimitable Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Rating	for for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and brief strong language
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$33 million

The Watchers is an American supernatural horror film written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, based on the novel of the same name by A. M. Shine. It stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouéré.

Filming took place from July to September 2023. It has been theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures on June 7, 2024.

Plot

Mina, an American immigrant working in a pet shop in Galway, Ireland, struggles to come to terms with the death of her mother, which she inadvertently caused fifteen years earlier, and is estranged from her twin sister Lucy. Mina's boss tasks her with delivering a valuable golden conure parrot to a zoo near Belfast. En route, her car breaks down, stranding her in a forest. Lost, she names the parrot Darwin. She follows an old woman, Madeline, to a bunker-like building, nicknamed "The Coop", and meets two other occupants, Ciara and Daniel. Madeline explains that mysterious entities called "The Watchers" observe the group through the mirrored window of the Coop every night.

Madeline explains the rules to Mina: at night the Watchers kill anyone outside the Coop, and nobody must enter the Burrows, the underground tunnels where the Watchers retreat during the day because of their aversion to sunlight. The group has been stranded in the forest for several months without encountering a Watcher; Ciara's husband John left the Coop days earlier but has not returned. Daniel helps Mina explore a Burrow, where she unearths several items like a camcorder and a bicycle and narrowly escapes a Watcher. That night, John appears at the Coop but Madeline refuses to let him in. When "John" fails to verify himself to Ciara, he appears to be dragged away. The Watchers crack the mirror; Madeline returns the items to the Burrow to appease them.

As winter falls, the group begins to turn hostile against one another. Daniel locks Mina and Madeline out of the Coop one night, forcing them to seek shelter in the forest. They witness the Watchers, humanoid creatures that imitate the Coop's occupants and react angrily to Madeline and Mina's absence. The pair get back into the Coop and Madeline explains that the Watchers are shapeshifting fairies attempting to learn how to better mimic humans. The Watchers attack the Coop. The group escapes through a hidden door leading to an underground study. Mina uncovers video diaries of Professor Rory Kilmartin, the Coop's creator. Kilmartin had come to the forest to study the creatures and had even captured one of them and bonded with it. In his last entry, the despondent professor explains how to escape from the forest and requests that his research be destroyed. The video ends with his climbing back into the Coop to kill the captured Watcher and himself.

The next day, the group follows the professor's directions and uses Darwin to guide them to the river at the edge of the forest. On the way, Madeline shows them a stone marker, explaining that humans had warred against the Fairies, who were deprived of their wings, driven underground, and imprisoned in the forest. Upon reaching the professor's boat, a Watcher mimicking John kills Daniel. The others take the boat and finally arrive back to civilization. On the road, a bus stops for them, and the driver says he can take them to the next city.

Mina heads to the professor's university to destroy his notes. There, she learns that humans and fairies once lived in harmony, with some even mating and producing hybrid offspring that could withstand daylight. She visits Ciara and shows her photographs, revealing that Madeline had been the professor's late wife. Their "Madeline" is the Watcher that the professor captured.

Ciara is revealed to be a disguised Madeline when the real Ciara arrives at the house. Madeline changes her form, knocking out Ciara and attacking Mina. She recounts that she was an outcast among the Watchers for her ability to walk during the day and plans to kill and replace Mina. Mina reveals Madeline's status as a half-human hybrid, persuading her to let go of her hatred towards humans, and telling her that there may be others like her out there. Madeline sprouts wings and departs.

Later, Mina reconciles with her sister Lucy. Meanwhile, Madeline, in the form of a human child, keeps watch over Mina.

Cast

• Dakota Fanning as Mina/Lucy
• Georgina Campbell as Ciara
• Olwen Fouéré as Madeline
• Oliver Finnegan as Daniel
• Alistair Brammer as John, Ciara's husband
• John Lynch as Kilmartin

Production

Development and casting

In February 2023, it was announced that New Line Cinema would produce The Watchers, written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan in her feature directorial debut. That April, Dakota Fanning and Georgina Campbell joined the cast of the film.

Filming

Principal photography took place in Dublin, Wicklow and Galway from July to September 2023. In mid-July, production was granted an interim agreement to continue filming during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

Release

The Watchers is scheduled to be theatrically released on June 7, 2024, by Warner Bros. Pictures.

External links

• Official website
• The Watchers at IMDb