Dakota Fanning explains why The Watched was like ‘solving a puzzle’

The Watched star Dakota Fanning likened unraveling the film’s narrative to “solving a puzzle.”

The supernatural horror film, titled The Watchers in the US, follows artist Mina (Fanning) as she “is stranded in a vast, untouched forest in the west of Ireland.

“After finding shelter, she is unknowingly trapped with three strangers (Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, Olwen Fouéré) who are stalked and stalked by mysterious creatures every night.”

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With the film being directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of horror legend M Night, many fans wondered if she would follow in her father’s footsteps by unfolding a cryptic narrative, with most of the action set in a large room with a mirror, as the mystery unfolds.

In an exclusive interview with The digital spyFanning and Shyamalan talked about the film’s central camera, which leaves Mina and co unable to see the outside as they are prey to onlookers.

“As an actor, you’re always trying to lose yourself, things you’re aware of or your vanity,” Fanning said. “You don’t want to think about how your hair looks or how these pants look or those things, you have to forget that.

“Then you work in front of a big mirror and you’re faced with what your face looks like in a day. There was definitely a bit of a learning curve for all of us to get used to, but people are adaptable so after a day or two we got used to it.

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“It was a bit of a theatrical experience – you feel like you’re on stage, but you’re performing for ourselves. It was interesting because the cinematography had to be creative and inventive to shoot in the environment on that set, so it felt like we were solving a puzzle every day of how to solve it.”

“It was a totally enjoyable thing for me,” added Shyamalan, who makes his directorial debut with the film. “I love shooting in the mirror (and) going into a space (to) find an unconventional thing to look at and tell the story through.

“It felt like an awkward thing where we were doing that very classic cinema thing of using a mirror, but we were doing it on a large scale. Knowing that going in, we were able to have a lot of conversations and strategize about how to make our shots – there’s a lot of little tricks and techniques there.”

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Fanning, who recently starred in The Equalizer 3 and Ripley, also recalled her experience filming in remote parts of Ireland, saying: “Even after a few weeks, I would get a general idea of ​​the different areas in which we will film

“But there would definitely be times where I’d be like, ‘(assistant director) Annabel (Cleary), where’s that chair?’ You’d have the “Where was I two seconds ago?” moments. I knew it would be great for the movie, and that’s all that matters.”

The Seen is released in theaters on June 7.

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