Watchers
Watchers
R | 02 December 1988 (USA)
Watchers Trailers

A boy takes in a stray dog, later finding out that its an ultra-intelligent runaway from a genetic research lab. Unbeknownst to him, the dog is being stalked by another escaped creature thats not quite so friendly.

Reviews
lost-in-limbo

Preposterous, but quite a fun gory and relentless late 80s creature-feature, where the screenplay is loosely adapted off a Dean R Koontz's novel. Instead it turns out to be a horror vehicle for teen heart throb Corey Haim, especially the amount of the time his character has and it becomes somewhat of an annoying distraction. Along for the carnage is Michael Ironside, providing plenty of ticker to his villainous ham portrayal of a devious government agent. Also the cast features good showings by Barbara Williams, Duncan Frazer, Colleen Winton, Blu Mankuma, Dan Wilson and a minor part for a young Jason Priestly. The plot has an intriguing back-story (a canine experiment gone wrong), but simply it gets lost in its cheesy dialogues and fashionable need to have a healthy body count leaving it to be a generic monster on the loose threat on a small town community. So you just take it for face value. Sometimes its hard to keep a straight face, make light of its choppy attack scenes and certain plot devices are vaguely penned, but it's commendably directed in its systematic patterns that you just go along with its genetic madness. The costume of the creature is downright tacky (a mutated ape?), but for the majority of the running time we only get jumpy glimpses of it… be it the hands, legs and then of course there's monster POV shot and growling."We're in this together."

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udar55

This failed adaptation of the Dean Koontz novel about a man befriending a super smart dog. Why do I say failed? Because they took the book's thirtysomething ex-Delta Force lead and made him Corey Haim. Yes, Corey Freakin' Haim. I'm sure Dean Koontz started rolling before he even gets close to being in a grave. Even sadder, the dog co-star acts circles around Haim. Seriously. Director Jon Hess makes a fine looking film (shot in British Columbia) and stages some nice attack sequences with some decent gore. But the monster design, something instrumental to these kind of flicks, is downright sad. Not as sad as Feldman, er, Haim being the lead, but sad enough that they have to keep it hidden in tight close ups or shadows. The always reliable Michael Ironside also gives a nice performance as the Government agent tracking the dog. Look for Jason Priestly as "Boy on bike" who gets offed.Corman made sure to get his money's worth out of his license of Koontz's novel as he made three sequels to this; they all basically remake the film with the second one being closer to the book than this one. As I said about RAWHEAD REX somewhere in this thread, I'm not a proponent of remakes but this is definitely a case where some filmmakers could make a movie 100% better from the source material.

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Aaron1375

When I saw this movie I certainly did not think it was an award winning movie or all that good, but it was okay. It passed the time, had an interesting enough story, add some more gore and kills and it might have been a really good horror movie. Like I said in my summary though, I have heard from many people the book is better, but then when have you not heard that cry when a book is made into a movie. This one is about a boy who finds a dog, what could be more touching than that. In fact I would have to say a bit to much time in the film is used exploring their budding friendship rather than on the super creature that is now coming for said boy and dog. Which there is a creature of super power homing in on the boy and his dog, killing those that get in its way. The boy finally finds out about this and he and the dog and I think the mother go into a cabin and have a final showdown with said monster. You will not get to see said monster all that much and there could have been a few more kills or something, but for the most part I found the movie entertaining. I would compare it to another Corey Haim horror movie "Silver Bullet", both are horrors that need more horror, but both can be called okay...just kind of fluffy.

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Rautus

Watchers is a fun movie if it's not taken too seriously, the novel written by Dean R. Koontz is obviously a lot better but the movie itself is entertaining in it's own way. The film has a lot of changes for the novel Watchers, the one difference is the main character Travis. In the book he was an adult and an retired Delta Force soldier while in the film he's a teenager. Watchers has it's good points, the film does have some gory scenes in parts. I'm a fan of Micheal Ironside and it was cool to see him in this film, he always does a great performance in all his films. The OXCOM costume looks kind of cheesy but the camera never really shows the creature fully until near the end of the film. The dog Einstien was impressive since it was well trained.The film sees two genetic experiments escaping from a lab, a dog and a monster. Both experiments are linked telepathically since the two animals are part of a military project were the dog would infiltrate an enemy base then the Creature would attack and eliminate them. The Dog finds a teenager named Travis who takes him home and discovers that he's intelligent and so he names the dog Einstein, meanwhile the OXCOM is roaming around killing people and gouging out their eyes, two Government agents are sent to find the two experiments before this incident gets out of hand. Soon Travis learns that his not safe as the OXCOM is drawn to the dog and will stop at nothing to kill him and anyone in it's way, so Travis and his mom go to rescue his girlfriend who's being held at the hospital by the two agents. They then hideout in the woods while the Government agents and the OXCOM are not far behind.Watchers is not a great adaptation of Dean R. Koontz novel but it is a entraining 80's horror flick, some fans of the book may not want to watch this since it's not faithful to the book but fans of cheesy 80's horror movies may want to check this out.

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