Mina, a young American woman living in Ireland and working in a pet store, is delivering a parrot to a customer when she gets lost in a large woodland area. Lost in the woods, she finds shelter in a strange structure that has three other people inside, who are also trapped, watched each night by something in the woods…

The Watched is based on the novel The Watchers by A.M. Shine. No, I don’t know why the title change for the UK release, though it has been said it was changed to avoid comparison with a Netflix series called The Watcher. Perhaps this it correct, but as The Watchers title is used in other regions, it seems an odd choice to change it.

The film is written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, a producer on this film. This is her debut film, though she has worked on the TV series Servant, which I have never watched. However, in the case of The Watched, I have read the novel it is based on.

The novel, I enjoyed a lot, though I didn’t think the ending quite worked for me. So now the question becomes, what is the film version like?

As with a number of adaptations of another source material, there are some changes. Mina’s past in the film is different to that of the book. Why the change I’m not sure. The characters have been changed too (I won’t spoil the book or film in this regard). It has to be said too, the final act does feel rushed compared with the actual book.

The film version is never scary at all. The book manages to capture the boring life those in the coop as it is known much better. There’s sadly a lack of that spark to give the film life as it were.

The film stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, along with Georgina Campbell as Ciara, Olwen Fouere as Madeline and Oliver Finnegan as Daniel, those trapped in the coop. Performance wise, it’s a mixed bag, with Dakota Fanning, surprisingly perhaps, being the weakest of the four.

Even if I hadn’t read the novel, in some ways you can see where it is going, due to the way certain shots are done, the overuse of mirrored reflections and so on. It has the feel of someone laying out the steps for the audience to follow, without wrapping any mystery about them.

I wanted to like this film, as, minor quibbles about the ending aside, I had enjoyed the book. But as a film, The Watched (or The Watchers) is a disappointing watch.

Rating: ** out of 5