Rare Flix: Watchers (1986)

At long last, it's here!  For whatever reason, MGM decided to not make any more of the Midnite Movie DVD sets.  As a result, the Watchers/Watchers II DVD became quite a bit overpriced.  To make matters worse (for many reasons), the lead actor in the film (Corey Haim) died, which I'm sure didn't help the price of the DVD get any lower.  To compensate, I spent about $4 to get Watchers II on VHS, but couldn't find a price on this film.  Lo and behold, it ended up on Netflix's Streaming Service, allowing me to finally see it.  Was it worth the wait?  Well, the movie is good, but it has some structural issues that I will address a bit later on.  All you need to know are these four words: Corey Haim, dog and monster.  Together, let's find out who watches the...

A factory explodes, seemingly killing all that is inside.  A man (Michael Ironside) is hired to track down two test subjects that escaped- a dog and a monster.  For no clear reason, the monster hates the dog.  Yeah, this film never actually explains this.  Does the book explain this maybe?  We meet our hero (Haim), who tries to get to second base with his girlfriend before dad shows up.  Damn you, family!  Things get worse as the monster shows up and kills the dad, wounding the daughter in the process.  The dog ends up in Haim's truck as he leaves and he ends up with it.  He finds out that the dog is smarter than most people in Texas, so the mom agrees to let him stay.  Watch for Jason Priestly as one of three 'Boys on Bikes' around this point too.  Meanwhile, Ironside continues his search for the dog, enlisting the local law enforcement to help him out.  This plot thread has a point for a bit, but just ends abruptly.

The middle portion of the film breaks down into a few key things...
* The monster shows up and kills people without actually revealing itself for more than a nanosecond.  This includes Priestly.
* The police (with Ironside) show up and talk about what happened.
* The dog proves that he's smart.
* Haim is concerned about his girlfriend and looks for her.  He does find time for this however...

Everything comes to a head in the Third Act...as it should.  Finally pressed for answers over what has happened, Ironside tells the whole story to the Sheriff...and then kills him.  Couldn't you have just killed him?  Ironside captures Haim's mother, who finds out that the girlfriend is alive and well.  Haim ends up at a cabin and buys a bunch of guns to take out the monster.  At some point, Don S. Davis shows up as a Veterinarian- just like that!  All of the characters show up in the same location and the deaths start piling up.  Ironside and his partner die a bloody death just before the monster shows up.  It knocks the dog around, so Haim takes the fight out into the Woods.  He seemingly-kills the creature, but, as a slasher villain, it has one last hurrah.  It dies the second time.  The End.

That's one silly monster!  The plot of this movie is simple, yet fairly-effective.  It has all of the basic elements that a movie needs (monster, love plot, family) and pretty much just covers its bases.  Beyond that, it doesn't do a whole lot.  The characters are basic, the scenarios are basic and the violence is pretty basic as well.  There are a lot of characters that exist just to die, which means that they are pretty one-dimensional.  I would love to tell you that characters like 'The Boyfriend with an Australian Accent' were important, but I'd be lying. That said, people like Ironside and Haim make the film pretty enjoyable, even if it is pretty simple.  I'd recommend this one over the first sequel quite easily.  As for Watchers III and Watchers Reborn, Netflix will need to start carrying them before I can tell you what I think.  Want to get on that at some point, guys?  I leave you with this interesting name in the Stunt Department...

Up next, the other sequel to Psycho.  Anthony Perkins is on board to Direct here, so he gets pretty much all of the blame.  Stay tuned...