Mina (Dakota Fanning) finds herself trapped in a vast forest in Ireland when her car and phone mysteriously stop working. She stumbles upon an older woman named Madeline (Olwen Fouere) who brings her to a building named ‘The Coop’ where they can seek refuge from creatures that come out at night to watch them. 

Madeline and two other survivors, Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) have been trapped there for months and years. But it is Madeline who has been there the longest who explains the rules to Mina. You must never be outside when the sun has set, you must never go near the creatures nests and you must never turn your back to the viewing window that the creatures watch you through. 

Mina of course wants to escape and has not yet given up on her curiosity of what is happening to her as the others trapped have. So she begins to explore the boundaries of the mysterious forest they are trapped in. She finds ‘Point of No Return’ signs circling their prison and dares go near the creatures nests. 

Whilst Mina is finding out more about her situation we start to find out more about her. It is exactly fifteen years since her mother died in an accident. An accident that still affects Mina greatly and resulted in her becoming estranged from her twin sister. Mina is so unhappy with herself she often likes to transform her appearance to be like someone else when she goes out. And of course the reason she was on a journey was because she was tasked with delivering an expensive parrot to a zoo which means she is still caring for the mimicking bird. 

The result is a mysterious and slightly chilling tale that weaves in folklore and a little horror. The story is a faithful adaptation of an A. M. Shine novel named ‘The Watchers’ which is what this film is called in the U.S. although it has been changed to ‘The Watched’ in the UK and Ireland. The bigger talking point though is that this is the debut film from the Ishana Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night Shyamalan. 

M. Night is of course known for his slightly spooky stories and for being king of the twist ending with the likes of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. Ishana who wrote and directed this feature has learnt her trade working alongside her father, most specifically on their TV show Servant. It will not come as a surprise then that the tone feels very much like a film by her father. The two obvious candidates are The Village for its forest setting and Lady In The Water for its folklore themes. But there is definitely a nagging feeling that without her father’s credentials this film would not have the standing it does as it is mostly intriguing without particularly engaging you. 

As the film builds to its ending it layers on its themes rather heavily and overall the outcome and journey is fine. There is definitely film making promise but this is a debut that hopefully will be left behind by much more interesting efforts.

A minor effort in what is hopefully a flourishing career.