Mina is a 28-year-old American immigrant trying to make a living in Ireland working at a pet store during the day and hooking up with strangers at night. One day, while driving to deliver a bird to a zoo in Belfast, she gets lost in a forest with no gas or phone battery. When she finally finds shelter, she will realize that she is trapped with three other strangers.

That's the starting point of The Watchers, the adaptation of the homonymous novel by A.M. Shine, in which the protagonist will soon discover that they are being watched by mysterious and unsettling creatures that surround them every night, and if she wants to stay alive, she must follow strict rules.

Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of the mastermind behind some of the most memorable plot twists in cinema history, follows in her father's footsteps, M. Night Shyamalan, making her directorial debut with this intriguing story and choosing for her first film the same genre that made her father famous, responsible for hits like The Sixth Sense, Signs, or Split.

'The Watchers'

The movie 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).

A productive summer for the Shyamalans

While some Hollywood star kids choose to legally erase their father's last name, like four of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's children, who now only use their mother's last name, the daughters of M. Night Shyamalan not only proudly carry their father's last name, but also are not affected by the 'nepo babies' label, and try to take advantage of the opportunity of having their famous father sponsor their projects.

"Having to prove your worth when you walk into a room is never a bad thing and makes you work harder," the filmmaker said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter when asked about nepotism. In another interview, she said that this debate was "completely valid" and that the important thing is the "reaction to privilege."

In addition to supporting Ishana's film debut, this summer, singer Saleka Shyamalan has portrayed a pop star in the movie Trap directed by her father, M. Night, where she composed songs, sings, dances, and plays one of the main characters in the film, carrying much of the plot's weight in the third act.

This is not Saleka Shyamalan's first collaboration with her father, as she had previously contributed with several songs to his previous projects, such as the Apple TV+ series Servant and the 2021 movie Old.

*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence