Critical response
The film received negative reviews. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 33% of 183 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Heavy on eerie mood but undone by an obtuse script, The Watchers can only hold the gaze for so long before tedium sets in." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 46 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 55% overall positive score, with 36% saying they would definitely recommend the film.
Several critics negatively compared Shyamalan's style to her father's. Dylan Roth of Observer commended the Shyamalan family for "never obscuring the nepotism at play" during the press tour, but wrote, "The Watchers did not convince me of much. Worse, it is precisely what I'm sure the young director hoped it wouldn't be—a pale imitation of her father's patented style." In a similarly negative but contrasting review, Bob Strauss of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "There's an inelegant blend of Celtic folklore thriller ... [and] contemporary horror movie tropes that renders the result unsatisfying for fans of either genre. And yet, Shyamalan proves herself a proficient director throughout most of this slog." RelishMix, which analyzes activity across social media platforms to summarize the public's general responses to a film's marketing, said it received 9% more attention than "first installment horror norms" but that "negative convo on The Watchers is limited to those turned off by M. Night Shyamalan's involvement as a producer after being dissatisfied with many of his past cinematic ventures."
In a mixed review for AV Club, Katie Rife concluded, "The Watchers is clearly a first film, with the promise and the problems that come with it." Michael Phillips's review for Chicago Tribune, rated three out of four stars, stated that Shyamalan "works well with cinematographer Eli Arenson to envelop the chamber-sized ensemble in various shades of dread, or comfort." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film 2.5/5 stars, writing, "The Watchers starts on an extremely promising note. But only a small fraction of the anticipation that it raises is satiated. Be that as it may, there is just enough in the shadows that the director creates to make sizeable chunks of the film watchable, even immersive."
