Horror novelist Dean R. Koontz has expressed unhappiness about several cinematic adaptations of his novels (like with HIDEAWAY). Though I haven't heard what he thinks of what Roger Corman did with WATCHERS, I think it's pretty safe to assume that he's appalled, especially since Corman has used the rights to the novel to make several awful movies, including this one. Where to begin? Well, even though the end credits reveal this was filmed in South America, it sure doesn't look spectacular. The various jungle locations look bland and all alike. The story is pretty slow, with not that much jungle action and gore for the first half of the movie. When we *do* see the monster, it's a shockingly bad creation - just imagine the monsters you have seen in 1950s Corman movies, and you'll have a good idea as to how this unconvincing creation looks like. I guess some of the gore effects aren't bad, and it's always good to see Wings Hauser, but the movie ends up being overall a bad and boring imitation of PREDATOR. With PREDATOR freely available for rent or purchase, there's no reason to see this third-rate imitation.

Exec. Producer Roger Corman's third attempt at adapting Koontz's novel turns out to be more DIRTY DOZEN/PREDATOR and less Koontzian (did I just invent a word?). The Outsider and Einstein the Golden Retriever are dropped in the middle of a Central American jungle. When things go awry, the Government sends in military prisoner Ferguson (Wings Hauser) and a few cellmates to clean up their mess with the promise of a full pardon. But can they trust that sneaky Government? This is totally by the numbers movie making but it is short enough, gory, and features a good performance by b-movie vet Hauser to keep you interested. Hauser has such an intensity that he can make even dialogue scenes with a dog seem important. The rest of the cast just traipse around until they get their opportunity to be killed. Interestingly, the screenplay has a woman and native mute kid in the mix with the woman getting killed and the kid not doing anything. Strange. Even stranger, the evil Government (who truthfully sent Hauser there to be killed) never gets its comeuppance as all b-movies dictate. Instead, they get away with it, outside of losing The Outsider. I would love to hear Dean's thoughts on all of these sequels, if he has even seen them.

I saw this Sunday afternoon and thought that there must be something else better on... like bass fishing with no bass in the lake! Then I saw a commercial that announced that George Lucas remade the Poseiden Adventure (calling it simply Poseiden). I guess that was worth watching this unwatchable movie.Hey wait a minute ... I just realized that there IS something worse than Tim Burton's destruction of "Planets of the Apes" - WATCHERS 3...And what's up with 3??? Does that mean there were TWO OTHERS?!?! Wow...1/10-ZafoidPS: I have always wondered who makes films like these. They are straight to video, and then not even worth watching by anyone - including the director! So why are these made? Is this a "learning experience" for the some of the crew? ... the director? ... the actors? I just don't get it. Then again, why do I watch them!? :)-Z

What, it got no Oscars? I wonder why? Well, I guess Dean's Watchers will never be made into a good movie... which does not really matter in this case, because it has nothing to do with the novel. It's YAPR (Yet Another Predator Ripoff). You've seen one, you've seen them all. This one isn't as idiotic as some of them (X-Tro 3...), but certainly not 1/10 as good as the original. Simply another below-average flick. Watch it if you can't get anything else, and don't have to pay for this one. Or if you're curious about the Watchers line and you're wondering "what are they going to screw up this time?". They didn't screw up too much, but they just didn't come up with any ideas.