Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for The Watchers, a new horror movie from producer M. Night Shyamalan written and directed by his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan (and based on the novel by A.M. Shine).
As you might expect, there's a lot of secrecy surrounding the project, but a brief synopsis has finally been revealed along with the sneak peek and poster.
"The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night."
"You can’t see them, but they see everything."
Everything we see in the trailer is suitably creepy, but will it ultimately boast the same sort of huge twist M. Night Shyamalan's movies have become known for? Many will expect that to be the case, but we're sure Ishana is looking to establish herself as a filmmaker with her big screen debut.
She previously helmed episodes of Apple TV+'s Servant, a series on which her father served as showrunner.
The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Ocean’s Eight), Georgina Campbell (Barbarian, Suspicion), Oliver Finnegan (Creeped Out, Outlander) and Olwen Fouere (The Northman, The Tourist). The film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan and Nimitt Mankad. The executive producers are Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.
Check out this first trailer and poster for The Watchers below.
Inevitably, there's been some nepotism talk but Ishana addressed that head-on in a January 2023 interview. "I think you know, with the Indian parentage, there's definitely a sense of pushing us to be our best and to work hard," she said.
"And I think, you know, when people make assumptions it just kind of fuels me a bit more to work harder than the person next to me. So, it's whatever criticism of nepotism I might get, it kind of helped me; fuelled me to become an artist."
"My life experience is very different than his and so there are sort of inevitably different textures compared to the work I do," Ishana concluded. "And then also being a woman where he's a man, there's sort of a different way I can present myself, I suppose."
Joining writer/director Shyamalan behind the camera are director of photography Eli Arenson (Lamb, Hospitality), production designer Ferdia Murphy (Lola, Finding You), editor Job ter Burg (Benedetta, Elle) and costume design by Frank Gallacher (Sebastian, Aftersun). The music is by Abel Korzeniowski (Till, The Nun).
The Watchers is set to open in theaters internationally beginning on 5 June 2024 and in North America on June 7, 2024.