45
Metascore
37 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 60IGNA.A. DowdIGNA.A. DowdThe more The Watchers comes together, the less interesting it becomes. It’s a puzzle best left unsolved.
- 59Paste MagazineJesse HassengerPaste MagazineJesse HassengerThere’s room in the horror space for a movie like this – a daft campfire tale best told in the damp morning after, part creature feature and part noodling about the nature of humanity. The Watchers may even find an enthusiastic sleepover audience, with its endearing PG-13 spookiness. But unlike other Shyamalan forays into the uncanny, it’s more functional than fully formed.
- 58The Daily BeastNick SchagerThe Daily BeastNick SchagerFollows the same basic pattern as the work of her dad M. Night Shyamalan—namely, it starts strong and then slowly falls apart under the weight of its obligations to clarify its baffling scenario.
- 50IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichIf there’s much about her debut that left me wishing the apple had fallen a little further from the tree, there’s also no denying that the “Unbreakable” filmmaker’s daughter has the skill to follow in her father’s footsteps, which she does here even when the material is begging her to blaze her own trail.
- 50SlashfilmJeremy MathaiSlashfilmJeremy MathaiThose looking for the next "The Sixth Sense" will inevitably come away disappointed (though, contrary to popular belief, that wasn't M. Night's actual debut film either). But as a bold announcement that the next evolution of the Shyamalan name is upon us, Ishana leaves plenty of reason to believe that the best is still ahead of us.
- 50The Film StageGabrielle MarceauThe Film StageGabrielle MarceauA serviceable but slightly soulless copy of countless films.
- 50VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanFor a while, The Watchers is a reasonably well-made lost-in-the-woods horror movie, one that draws you in like a puzzle whose rules you need to learn (just as the characters do).
- 40The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Watchers, sadly, is less disturbing than dull, less harrowing than hackneyed.
- 40ColliderChase HutchinsonColliderChase HutchinsonI see dead people in this film, but their cause of death is simply boredom.
- 40Screen RantMae AbdulbakiScreen RantMae AbdulbakiThe Watchers is a strange film. It has disconcerting moments, but it never rises above its premise. The story itself is half-formed at best, and the ending is so outlandish that I was stunned by how badly it’s executed. Somewhere in the supernatural horror is a film that’s worth its salt. Sadly, The Watchers is not even worth the price of a theater ticket.