Movie Reviews: The Watchers and The Screaming Silent

October Horror, Day 1

October 1:

The Watchers (2024)

five stars

Director and writer: Ishana Night Shyamalan

As a late-diagnosed autistic, the resolution hit me hard. I’m always watching others, trying to get peopling correct. As a Pettigrew from the old country (Crilly House, Tyrone), my Irish bones loved the storytelling and imagery. This is gorgeous and moody folk horror at its finest. (Letterboxd link)

The Screaming Silent (2020)

1 1/2 stars 1 star

Director: David Davidson (only film)

Writers: David Davidson and Roy Weiland (only film for both)

When is it an homage and when is it a ripoff? A scene is copied from The Blair Witch Project (“I see why you like this…”) and “What the fuck was that?” sounded exactly like Heather.

Props for set design in that spooky journal. But it’s all lost in that supposed gotcha of an ending—what was that supposed to be? Some Heart of Darkness/possession bullshit? 

There’s a real story here, about abuses and cruelties heaped upon the Tasmanian aboriginals, that could have been thoughtfully and carefully explored through folk horror, but…this swung and missed trying to be too many things at once. So it, in a way, belittled that trauma with some white kids stomping around in the bush. (Letterboxd link)

Note added later: it really is supposed to be a horror movie based upon the novel Heart of Darkness, so the references/ripoffs of Blair Witch are probably supposed to be clever, just like the last line. This takes me rating down from 1 1/2 stars to 1.

More culturally sensitive information about the aboriginals in Tasmania, thanks to the Truth Telling and Treaty Process: Libraries Tasmania: Tasmanian Aboriginal history, collections, and access.