Ishana Night Shyamalan’s The Watchers Gets MAX Premiere Date

Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that New Line Cinema’s The Watchers — the directorial debut of Ishana Night Shyamalan — will make its free streaming debut next week. The film is headed to Max, the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming platform formerly known as HBO Max — on August 30th. From producer M. Night Shyamalan comes The Watchers, written for the screen and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan and based on the novel by A.M. Shine. 

The Watchers, which had a reported $30 million budget, earned just $33 million worldwide in theaters, and headed to VOD platforms just three weeks after it premiered, and has not fared much better with crititcs; on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a 32% critics score and 52% audience score. It serves as an interesting companion to Trap, now in theaters, the latest movie from Shyamalan’s father M. Night Shyamalan. Trap also features Shyamalan’s other daughter in a featured role as a pop singer whose concert is the movie’s setting.

“Well, it was very much just imagining what the four or five of these people were like, and what they would be like together. Then, as the continual lesson that I learned during the filmmaking process, there’s just a certain alchemy that happens,” the filmmaker revealed during a Q&A in which ComicBook.com was in attendance. “If you’re lucky enough to catch it, you do. With this path, there were all these movements that just led to this group being together. They have such an electric energy when they’re all together. It’s really, really cool. It’s so fun. It felt like theater!”  

Per its official synopsis, 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.”  

The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Ocean’s Eight), Georgina Campbell (Barbarian, Krypton), 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.

The Watchers is now available on Digital. The movie is coming to DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD on Tuesday, August 27th ahead of its Max debut on August 30th.