The Watchers is enjoyable but faulty: a typical first feature in many ways, it shows great promise in terms of performance and style, but perhaps struggles too much with its story and screenplay. That said, the film seems to have been unfairly maligned due to its familial connections. It marks the directing debut of Ishana Night Shyamalan, with her rather famous director father M. Night Shyamalan producing it. That it aesthetically resembles her father’s work is not necessarily a problem – Ishana directed second unit for his films Old and Knock at the Cabin, and it makes sense she would pick up some of his techniques. What troubles me is the question of whether a filmmaker’s first work should ever be a US$30m feature from a major studio. It places an untoward pressure on her to succeed. Nepotism may be a guaranteed means of getting through the door, and if you have the opportunity it would be foolish not to use it, but only commercial success is going to keep you in the room. The Watchers did not break even theatrically.

The film stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, an American living in Ireland who is tasked with transporting a rare parrot across the country by car. In a forest her car breaks down. Soon she is lost, supernaturally so, and finds refuge with a small group in a glass fronted cabin. There they must perform for the mysterious “watchers”: creatures that watch them and shriek horribly from outside.

It is hard to watch The Watchers and not be immediately reminded of The Village (2004), M. Night’s thriller about a forest community threatened by unseen monsters. The similarity does not help the daughter emerge from her father’s shadow, although her film arguably resolves events better than his did.

The performances are strong: not just Fanning but also Georgia Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouéré. It is nice to see Fanning front and centre in a mainstream feature again. For a while now she has seemed overshadowed by her younger sister Elle.

The film looks great, with a solid sense of style and place. It is all based on good ideas as well, with Ishana adapting a novel by A.M. Shine. That said, it does not grapple sufficiently well with those ideas, and while there are some potent dramatic moments the film can never quite shake the sense that better moments were left on the table. Whether Shine’s fault or Shyamalan’s, I have no clear idea.

The screenplay showcases the work at its weakest. Its third act is too long by half, and needlessly complicates plot elements that – had they absolutely needed to be included – could have been better foreshadowed or signposted earlier. There are also an awful lot of characters saying what they are doing (‘we’re trapped!’, ‘we’re lost!’, ‘that creature wants to eat us!’), which is a fairly obvious giveaway of an inexperienced writer.

The end result is perfectly serviceable, and even enjoyable, but the pressure placed up expectations by scale, marketing, and name branding may lead a viewer to expect more. Ishana Night Shyamalan has stepped through the door; it is up to her to stay in the room.