Movie · 2024 · Fantasy, Horror, Mystery · 1h 42m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 0.7/10 (401.1K ratings)
Let them see you.
Overview
A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, Oliver Finnegan, Alistair Brammer, John Lynch, Siobhan Hewlett, Hannah Dargan, Emily Dargan, Joel Figueroa, Thabile Michelle Hlongwane, Anthony Morris, Shane O'Regan, Jim Tighe, Zarima McDermott, Morgan Bailey-Rocks, Christian Bailey-Rocks, Éabha Connolly, Hannah Howland, Kya Brame
Where to watch
Max
Curator Review
Verdict
An atmospheric folk-horror mystery with strong forest imagery and an appealing premise, but the film’s rules, explanations, and payoff divide audiences. It’s worth a look if you’re in it for eerie mood and creature-fable vibes more than airtight plotting.
Best for
viewers who enjoy moody, slow-burn horror with fairy-tale textures
fans of forest-set isolation stories and mystery-box premises
audiences who prioritize atmosphere, production design, and visual unease
Skip if
you want tightly plotted horror with clean logic
you’re impatient with exposition-heavy storytelling
you dislike films that trade scares for lore and twist mechanics
Overview
The Watchers has a genuinely promising setup: an isolated forest, a sealed-off shelter, and the creeping sense that the woods are governed by rules no one fully understands. The film’s strongest asset is its atmosphere, which leans into damp, uncanny, old-world dread rather than cheap jump scares. When it stays in that mode, it can be effective and even hypnotic.
Worth noting
The problem is that the movie keeps explaining itself out of its own mystery. What begins as a tense survival tale gradually turns into a lore dump, and the emotional momentum thins as the rules become more important than the characters. The result is a film that feels more intriguing in concept than satisfying in execution.
Bottom line
There are still pleasures here for viewers who like modern folk horror with a glossy studio finish. But if you need your mysteries to land cleanly, or your horror to escalate with real bite, this one is likely to frustrate more than it rewards.
Top Letterboxd reviews
haley (2★) · 7100 likes
the fake love island episodes were more interesting than anything involving the watchers
Jim Caddick (2.5★) · 6676 likes
How long does it take an Irishman, a Brit, an American and an old lady to look under a rug?
8 months apparently
Philbert Dy (1.5★) · 4657 likes
There's a part early on where the main character is being taught about the medicinal properties of the various plants in the forest. One would naturally assume that this would somehow factor into the plot later on, but one would be wrong. It doesn't matter at all that this character knows about plants, and those plants will never come in useful. It's just something the movie is spending time on, even if it doesn't really matter.
They mention rules, but… more
corey👻 (2.5★) · 3650 likes
nooo dakota fanning don’t go into the creepy forest of death it’s a waste of 102 minutes