A-list studded horror set in Galway splits viewers as some dub movie 'Irish lore at its best'

A ‘chilling’ horror movie set in the west of Ireland has received mixed reviews online.

The Watchers, starring Dakota Fanning, is a supernatural horror flick that was released in June. The film received harsh criticism from film critics but rave reviews from many fans who were delighted to see it play out against the backdrop of Co Galway .

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Dakota Fanning plays Mina, an American woman living and working in Galway as she grieves the death of her mother which she inadvertently caused. After becoming stranded in a forest one night, Mina encounters supernatural entities and fights to stay alive in an underground bunker.

Galway is one of the main filming locations for the movie, and viewers instantly recognized locations like Quay Street, Kirwan's Lane, and Cross Street. The film was also shot in Dublin , and Wicklow. While the movie received a mere 52% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, some Irish fans seemed to enjoy the movie, even noticing some Irish folklore woven into the storyline.

In the Rotten Tomatoes comments, one user @Kevin L wrote: “Irish lore at its best,” while another @David M disagreed, writing: “Long winded, predictable, kind of makes a mockery of Irish actors with made-up locations and poor scripts and performances. Boring twist at the end.”

@Hanna V agreed that the film took a strange approach to representing Ireland, writing: “I just couldn't get over the ridiculous route she was apparently taking from Galway to Belfast ...like we got no highways in Ireland sure it's grand go through the mountains and forests...it just rubbed me the wrong way from the start...the whole movie was meh tbh, too many lazy script writing moments imo.”

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Ultimately, most of the praise for the movie seems to be directed at Dakota Fanning and her co-stars Georgina Campbell and Olwen Fouéré, whose acting outshone the weak plot and poor writing, according to many reviews.

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