The Watched (The Watchers) - Movie Review, June 2024
General News
Saturday 15th, June 2024
SPOILERS: If you haven't seen the movie please be aware that there are spoilers below.
The Watched (as it's known in Ireland and the United Kingdom), also called The Watchers in most other countries is an interesting new movie from some of the Shyamalan family, with the well known M. Night Shyamalan and one of his dauthgers, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Set in the west of Ireland and principal photography having taken place in Dublin, Wicklow and Galway between July and September 2023 this film is steeped in Irish culture, mythology and folklore.
The Watched takes a modern twist on the Gaelic idea of the Fae or fairies. With years apart between the modern day world and the stories that were told around the hearth of a fire in rural Ireland many moons ago, to having both these worlds thrown together in an nerve tingling and anixity raising way.
With the main protagonist, Mina, played by Dakota Fanning getting lost on a track surrounded by forest, the hairs on the back of your neck will start to stand tall and stay that way for the first half of the movie at least.
The movie plays heavily on the Irish beliefs of the Fae and that humans and fairies crossed pathes quite regularly with the trick for humans to not do anything to attract unwanted attention and then everyone could live in relative peace.
Further more to this The Watched does pull on other aspects of the Irish belief in the Fae where some humans were stolen never to be seen again.
While watching The Watched there does seem to have been a fair bit of research done into the Fae in Irish folklore, for example there are hints of the story of Fir Bolg who were believed to be a supernatural people that went underground which some believe are now known as fairies, or the banishment aspect in The Watched similarly aligns with some beliefs that the Fae were banished angels who refused to take sides when St. Michael crushed the rebellion in heaven.
There are so many stories and they all change and take a different path depending on who you ask but without giving to much further away it's great to see a well produced movie based on a well known part of Gaelic and more specifically Irish folklore with regards to the Fae.
Anyone with even a slight interest in the Fae will find many nods to the different stories of the Fae in the movie and above all it kept our attention to the end, and we think it's worth a watch on the big screen!
The Watched (as it's known in Ireland and the United Kingdom), also called The Watchers in most other countries is an interesting new movie from some of the Shyamalan family, with the well known M. Night Shyamalan and one of his dauthgers, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Set in the west of Ireland and principal photography having taken place in Dublin, Wicklow and Galway between July and September 2023 this film is steeped in Irish culture, mythology and folklore.
The Watched takes a modern twist on the Gaelic idea of the Fae or fairies. With years apart between the modern day world and the stories that were told around the hearth of a fire in rural Ireland many moons ago, to having both these worlds thrown together in an nerve tingling and anixity raising way.
With the main protagonist, Mina, played by Dakota Fanning getting lost on a track surrounded by forest, the hairs on the back of your neck will start to stand tall and stay that way for the first half of the movie at least.
The movie plays heavily on the Irish beliefs of the Fae and that humans and fairies crossed pathes quite regularly with the trick for humans to not do anything to attract unwanted attention and then everyone could live in relative peace.
Further more to this The Watched does pull on other aspects of the Irish belief in the Fae where some humans were stolen never to be seen again.
While watching The Watched there does seem to have been a fair bit of research done into the Fae in Irish folklore, for example there are hints of the story of Fir Bolg who were believed to be a supernatural people that went underground which some believe are now known as fairies, or the banishment aspect in The Watched similarly aligns with some beliefs that the Fae were banished angels who refused to take sides when St. Michael crushed the rebellion in heaven.
There are so many stories and they all change and take a different path depending on who you ask but without giving to much further away it's great to see a well produced movie based on a well known part of Gaelic and more specifically Irish folklore with regards to the Fae.
Anyone with even a slight interest in the Fae will find many nods to the different stories of the Fae in the movie and above all it kept our attention to the end, and we think it's worth a watch on the big screen!
