M. Night Shyamalan-produced horror-thriller The Watched is getting a sequel – just not in the way you’re probably expecting.
Directed by Shyamalan’s daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan, the movie follows Mina (Dakota Johnson), an artist who finds herself trapped in a remote, concrete cabin with three strangers after getting lost in a forest in western Ireland. There, she discovers that the trio are, essentially, prisoners in the weird-looking shelter; rarely stepping outside its walls due to the mysterious, murderous creatures that observe their every move each night.
Also starring Georgina Campbell (Barbarian), Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouéré, it’s based on A.M Shine’s 2022 novel The Watchers.
Despite the film’s largely negative reviews, which led to it earning just 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, the book proved a hit with critics, and now it’s been announced that a follow-up book, titled Stay in the Light, is on the way. While it’s not a detail that featured in Shyamalan’s take, the title references a phrase scrawled on the inside of ‘The Coop’, which Mina and co find themselves having to heed in order to survive.
“After her terrifying experience at the hands of the Watchers, Mina has escaped to a cottage on the west coast of Ireland. She obsessively researches her former captors, desperate to find any way to prolong the safety of humankind,” the official synopsis reads, making clear that it’ll pick up right where its predecessor (and the movie) leaves off.
“When Mina encounters a stranger near her home, she fears the worst – for she knows the figure is not what it seems. Soon, people she has encountered start to disappear,” it continues. “Mina knows the Watchers’ power is growing. She flees for her life, but when she reports her fears she finds her sanity questioned. Can she convince people that the Watchers are real, and ready to strike – or will she suffer the fate she has dreaded since she first encountered those malevolent beings?”
Given the negative reception to The Watched, and its lackluster box-office takings, it seems unlikely that the sequel novel will be adapted for the big screen, too. Stranger things have happened, though. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Stay in the Light releases on 10 October 2024, just in time for Halloween. You can pre-order it here or on Amazon UK.
If… well… watching is more your bag than reading, check out our list of the best horror movies of all time or our breakdown of the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.
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