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According to Jonathan Klotz
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M. Night Shyamalan is either one of the worst directors to ever step behind the camera or a creative genius depending on who you ask and what movie you’re talking about, but there’s no disputing the success of his first film. Sixth sense. Now that he casts one daughter, Saleka Night Traphis younger daughter Ishana Night went behind the camera for her first feature film, Guardianswhich recently debuted on Netflix. In keeping with family tradition, the film has divided the horror community with opinions almost perfectly divided, but even detractors admit that Ishana has some of her father’s talent.
Captive cast
Horror movie feature Dakota Fanning as Mina, an American woman traveling through Belfast whose car breaks down in a haunted forest where an equally haunted woman tells her to come with her if she wants to live. The woman, Madeline (played by Olwen Fouere, who recently appeared in Tarot), brings Mina to a bunker connected to The Coop, a structure with a one-way window that allows strange beings called Watchers to watch them every night. Guardians is a potential metaphor for streaming on Netflix or binging reality TV, but the strange creatures that cannot be caught in the sunlight are clearly dangerous and have bad intentions for the trapped cast.
People who, in addition to Mina and Madeline, include Georgina Campbell (known e.g Barbarian) as Ciara and Irish actor Oliver Finnegan as Daniel wander around during the day but always return to the safety of the bunker and The Coop each night to perform for the Watchers. With a limited cast and locations that range from The Coop to the woods and another angle in the woods, it might seem Guardians was a low-budget Netflix original when it was actually entirely self-funded M. Night Shyamalan. This very fact means that no matter how scary or horrifying the premise is, and there are some good jump potions, some people have made up their minds about the film long before it hits theaters.
The problem of nepotism cannot be avoided
Nepotism has become a big problem in Hollywood lately, even though it has been in every industry since the dawn of time, very few directors can get their first movie to be financed by their entire $30 million father. That means Guardians faced an uphill battle for attention on its own, and while it wasn’t a huge theatrical hit, it was in Netflix’s top ten since it debuted on the world’s biggest streaming platform.
Long before it was successful Netflix, Guardians was a book by AM Shine, and there were some major changes in the transition from page to screen. For one, the book never describes what the Rangers look like, while the movie ends up showing them in all their creepy glory, and oddly enough, it’s the book that sets up the sequel and not the movie. There are other changes, but in true Shyamalan style, there is a twist in the story.
Guardians is currently available on Netflix, while you can watch M. Night’s second daughter perform Trap on Max. There’s no denying that nepotism played a role in both projects, but it’s also true that there are much worse horror movies out there today than the aforementioned Tarotand really, both movies are worth watching and judging for yourself.
