Watched in the cinema (93rd visit in 2024)

Film fans will be treated to two Shyamalan films in 2024. Before M. Night Shyamalan brings his concert thriller "Trap" with Josh Harnett to cinemas, he is leaving the stage to his daughter Ishana, who is making her feature film debut with "The Watchers". She previously directed 6 episodes of her father's Apple series "Servant". But instead of slavishly following in his footsteps, Ishana is taking a different path. So don't expect a big twist at the end that turns everything on its head. Instead, the 23-year-old director's adaptation of the novel of the same name by Irishman A. M. Shine is based on the works of Guillermo del Toro - with fairy-tale interludes and plenty of folklore.

Especially in the night scenes, Ishana Shyamalan demonstrates a good knack for staging moments of suspense. It's just a shame that the original and the script are not on the same level. Just like this year's unsuccessful Blumhouse film "Night Swim", "The Watchers" also suffers from a danger zone that is too clearly defined. When the characters are in their hideouts or it is daytime, nobody seems to be in serious danger. As a result, the intensity drops rapidly and there are very long recovery phases.

One option would have been for the protagonists to make life difficult for each other, so that at some point the audience no longer knows whether the greatest danger is coming from inside or outside - "The Mist" and "10 Cloverfield Lane" have demonstrated this. But the constellation of characters is simply the wrong one for such claustrophobic tension. Everyone is pretty nice and understanding with each other and helps each other out.

This softer touch certainly suits the story about coming to terms with the past and reconciliation, but "The Watchers" might be too lame for a younger, jump-scare-trained audience. In addition, the novel's origins become abundantly clear time and again when Mina, played convincingly by Dakota Fanning, talks to herself or characters have to recite exposition over a longer period of time.

What remains at the end are a few thoroughly eerie moments, a nice finish and a promise for the future. With the right scripts, Ishana Night Shyamalan should also give us a powerful scare at some point.