Horror seems to run in the family, as M. Night Shyamalan's daughter Ishana Shyamalan is making her feature movie directing debut with the 2024 new movie The Watchers. Whether or not she’ll have the same penchant for major twist endings we’ll have to wait and find out.
The movie is based on a book by A.M. Shine of the same name that was first published in 2022. The story focuses on a group of people who find themselves imprisoned and watched every night by mysterious creatures. Who are the creatures and what do they want with them?
Before we get answers to those questions, we have answers to all your basic questions about The Watchers, including when it releases, who's in it and more.
The Watchers release date
The Watchers has been set for an exclusive release in movie theaters on June 7 in the US and UK. That makes it an early entry in the 2024 summer blockbuster lineup.
In the, the UK and Ireland has a different title, playing as The Watched.
The Watchers cast
Dakota Fanning is set to lead The Watchers in the role of Mina, one of the people who finds herself imprisoned by the mysterious Watchers. We've seen Fanning on screen practically her entire life in movies like I Am Sam, War of the Worlds, Man on Fire, Coraline, The Twilight franchise, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Equalizer 3. She's also appeared in popular TV shows, including The Alienist, Gen: Lock and The First Lady, with a role in the new Netflix show Ripley.
Other members of The Watchers cast include Georgina Campbell (Barbarian, Suspicion), Oliver Finnegan (Outlander, Creeped Out) and Olwen Fouere (The Northman, The Tourist).
The Watchers plot
Ishana Shyamalan adapted Shine's book for the big screen. Here is the official synopsis for The Watchers from Warner Bros.:
"From producer M. Night Shyamalan comes The Watchers, written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan and based on the novel by A.M. Shine. The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night."
The Watchers trailer
Check out the first trailer for The Watchers right here, which teases how whatever the Watchers are, they can see us but we can’t see them:
Another trailer for the horror movie is also available to watch right here:
The Watchers reviews
Reviews for The Watchers aren't great, as review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has it only received positive reviews from 36% of critics as of June 6, which gives it a "Rotten" label.
Director Ishana Shyamalan
While The Watchers is Ishana Shyamalan's first movie, she has a good bit of directing experience already, having helmed multiple episodes of the Apple TV Plus original series Servant, which she was also a writer and producer on. Plus, it doesn't hurt when you get to learn from your dad, the renowned filmmaker of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Old and more.
