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THE WATCHERS

"Trapped in a Nightmarish Show for Monsters"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)
Entertainment Quality:
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Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

THE WATCHERS stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, who works in a pet shop in Ireland. Mina drives out of town to deliver a large parrot. However, when passing through the woods, her car shuts down. Mina gets out to find her bearings, but her car disappears. She follows a woman named Madeline to a box cabin with a giant one-way mirror. Madeline and two other people are forced to live in the cabin while unseen monsters come out at night to watch them through the mirror. The monsters get angry when Mina breaks the rules.

THE WATCHERS is well shot, but it’s hard to watch. The performances are flat and show no emotion. They also make annoying decisions. Thus, the movie tries to scare viewers but comes up short. THE WATCHERS has some moral elements about protecting family and other people. However, it has a strong, unacceptable pagan worldview with false theology. The Watchers turn out to be creatures who once ruled the world like gods and can fall in love with humans. THE WATCHERS also has some foul language and nudity.

Content:

(PaPa, FRFRFR, B, C, Ev, Ho, LL, VV, S, NN, A, D, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
Strong pagan, slightly mixed worldview with very strong false religion references where the powerful mysterious beings in the movie once ruled the Earth like gods, but also that humans and the non-human beings could somehow mate and produce halflings, mixed with light moral elements about protecting friends and family, and some characters worry about other characters, plus a church is seen in the background twice, and there are allusions to angels, a woman has named a parakeet Darwin, and there are two instances of a pride flag shown;

Foul Language:
Five obscenities (including one “f” word), one GD profanity, and nine light profanities;

Violence:
Light and strong violences includes man tries to climb a tree, but a bird hits him, and man falls off the tree and gets dragged underground, another man catches a bird and snaps its neck for a small group of trapped people to eat, a child is shown disobeying her mother, and the mother crashes the car and is killed, the child’s sister is shown with scars and blood on her face, mysterious monsters break a window off screen, but the glass flies into camera range, two gunshots off screen, man gets cut on his forehead, man with cut forehead falls to the ground and gets his throat cut, woman grabs a picture frame and smacks another woman with it, woman hits a wall and falls to the ground, woman drags another woman through a cabin and picks her up by the neck and then cuts her wrist, woman chases another woman and throws her through a mirror;

Sex:
No sex scenes but there are two instances of an unmarried couple seen kissing on a television show, three unmarried couples on the TV show have their arms around each other, and a young man holds hands in fear with a married woman whose husband has gone missing, and later they are seen dancing and hugging, plus there are two instances of a pride LGBT flag later in the movie;

Nudity:
Some of “The Watchers” are seen fully nude but lack any genitalia, and one female Watcher is also shown fully nude, but there is no genitalia, and one drawing depicts full female nudity;

Alcohol Use:
Woman opens up an alcoholic beverage in apartment before leaving for the bar and getting drinks with a stranger and another character named the Professor is seen pouring a drink on a tape recording;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
Main character vapes three times, and later her mother is depicted smoking once; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:
Strong miscellaneous immorality includes lying, woman dresses up in a wig and pretends to be somebody from out of town at a bar, woman starts to speed while driving her car, woman and man disobey the “rules” laid down by their mysterious captors and go down a burrow taking items belonging to their captors found there, child disobeys her mother and puts her fingers in the car window as it rolls up, man ties up one woman and leaves her and another woman locked outside of a safehouse, a character on videotape traps a “Watcher” creature in a cage and does unseen experiments on it.

More Detail:

THE WATCHERS follows four people in Ireland stuck in a cabin in the woods and being watched by mysterious monsters called “the Watchers,” but when they try to escape, they experience and unleash the supernatural. THE WATCHERS suffers from flat characters and a strong, slightly mixed pagan worldview featuring false religion.

THE WATCHERS opens by following a man named John in the woods. He tries to escape but finds himself trapped in a loop. As the sun sets, an unseen monster drags him underground.

After that, the movie cuts to Mina, who works at a pet shop, delivering a bird to a customer out of town. Before leaving, she discloses it’s the anniversary of her mother’s death and goes out to a bar dressed up like someone else.

Mina drives deep into the woods, where her car mysteriously shuts down. She sees a sign and assumes someone lives nearby. So, she grabs the bird and wanders into the woods. Mina tries to turn around to go to the car, but it disappears. However, she finds a stranger named Madeline running through the woods and decides to follow her.

Madeline leads Mina to a box-shaped cabin with a one-way mirror wall. Two other characters, Ciera and Daniel, are also there. Outside, every night, mysterious monsters called the Watchers watch them through the one-way mirror.

During the day, Mina and the three other people leave to collect supplies. Mina convinces Daniel to lower her into a burrow, where the Watchers go during the day. Once down there, she takes many of their belongings, including a bike and camera, before encountering a Watcher as she’s leaving.

Back at the shelter, they set up the camera to see the watchers, but Ciera’s husband, John, appears instead. He knocks on the door for help, but they don’t open it. The Watchers leave, and the survivors go into a panic.

Flash forward to the winter. Tensions are high, food is low, and Madeline is rude to Daniel. On one of the unsuccessful trips to collect food, Daniel ties up Madeline and locks Mina and Madeline outside the shelter. The Watchers search for them, but the ladies sneak back inside and hide in an underground shelter under the cabin before the Watchers break into the above ground shelter.

Downstairs, they learn the truth about the Watchers. This leads to several more twists, including violence.

THE WATCHERS is interesting at the start, but that interest quickly fades. The visuals and music are excellent, but the performances drag the movie down. Every character is flat and shows only one emotion. Mina is so monotone it’s hard to believe she even cares that her life is in danger. Also, characters dump their trauma on others for no reason, which is an ineffective tool for manipulating the audience into empathizing with the characters.

THE WATCHERS has some moral elements about protecting family and other people. However, it has a strong, unacceptable pagan worldview with false theology. (SLIGHT SPOILER FOLLOWS) For example, without giving too much away, the Watchers turn out to be creatures who once ruled the world like gods and can fall in love with humans. THE WATCHERS also has some foul language and nudity.



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