Watchers (1988)

The other reviewer pretty much nailed it -- if you read the book, this movie will bring you to tears, and the book was never intended to be a tear-jerker. Here is the issue: Hollywood has never, even on its best day, done an especially good job of adapting these sorts of stories. Look at the mess they made with Stephen King (a very odd author who, history may well record, "peaked" in the 1980s -- and no one bothered to tell him). After butchering one King novel after another, after another -- and even trying "cheap movie tricks" like getting the author to adapt his own material, a clear sign of desperation! -- ultimately King's newest stuff ended up in miniseries only, with not even a pretence of making it to the big screen. My point? Well regardless of which author you favour (and Koontz has an army of fans, or, at least, used to) if they could not manage to bring King to the screen, you can only guess what a mess they made of Koontz. This is widely held to be his best work -- a brilliant suspense tail (pun!) that incorporates one of the best "dog" roles ever -- and essentially they shot themselves in the foot before even the first reel was in the camera. Packaged as a B movie, with Corey Haim (?) and Michael Ironside, this film was over before it even began. Don't see this, don't rent it, don't stream it, don't download it and -- depending on what decade or century it is when you access this IMDb entry -- don't even have it beamed directly into your cortex. Read the book.

Unfortunately, if one enjoyed the Dean R. Koontz novel, reviews here indicate that as an adaptation the film is an abomination, with far too many changes from script to screen. If, however, one isn't familiar with the novel, they may take this for what it is: a fairly harmless, routine creature feature with acceptable pacing, a very likable dog, a typically appealing Corey Haim in the lead role, and a decent body count. Direction (by Jon Hess) and presentation overall is highly undistinguished, but (very) undemanding horror junkies may still be just amused enough to not turn it off.Haim plays Travis, a teenager who makes the acquaintance of a super intelligent golden retriever that stows away in the bed of his pick up truck one night. Dubbing the dog "Furface", he quickly realizes just how smart the dog is. Unfortunately, he finds that anybody who gets close to the dog gets targeted by a big hairy brutish animal, the result of the same kind of genetic testing that created the dog. Eventually, Travis takes it on the lam with his mother Nora (Barbara Williams), while being pursued by cold eyed, resilient government agent Lem (Michael Ironside, bad ass as always).So-so movie, executive produced by Roger Corman, that does get off to a good start and hit the ground running. It doesn't have a lot of suspense, or memorable kill scenes. The music is by Joel Goldsmith, eldest son of fellow composer Jerry Goldsmith, and his score does sound similar to what his dad did for "First Blood" a few years previous. The acting helps to keep things somewhat palatable; both Haim and Ironside do well. Some of the dialogue and moments are rather silly, however (such as when a frightened janitor phones the police).Certainly worse, and better, horror movies have been made, but this proves to be very mildly diverting, and quite forgettable in the end.Look for Jason Priestley as a teen on a bike.Five out of 10.

This failed adaptation of the Dean Koontz novel about a man befriending a super smart dog. Why do I say failed? Because they took the book's thirtysomething ex-Delta Force lead and made him Corey Haim. Yes, Corey Freakin' Haim. I'm sure Dean Koontz started rolling before he even gets close to being in a grave. Even sadder, the dog co-star acts circles around Haim. Seriously. Director Jon Hess makes a fine looking film (shot in British Columbia) and stages some nice attack sequences with some decent gore. But the monster design, something instrumental to these kind of flicks, is downright sad. Not as sad as Feldman, er, Haim being the lead, but sad enough that they have to keep it hidden in tight close ups or shadows. The always reliable Michael Ironside also gives a nice performance as the Government agent tracking the dog. Look for Jason Priestly as "Boy on bike" who gets offed.Corman made sure to get his money's worth out of his license of Koontz's novel as he made three sequels to this; they all basically remake the film with the second one being closer to the book than this one. As I said about RAWHEAD REX somewhere in this thread, I'm not a proponent of remakes but this is definitely a case where some filmmakers could make a movie 100% better from the source material.

Watchers is a fun movie if it's not taken too seriously, the novel written by Dean R. Koontz is obviously a lot better but the movie itself is entertaining in it's own way. The film has a lot of changes for the novel Watchers, the one difference is the main character Travis. In the book he was an adult and an retired Delta Force soldier while in the film he's a teenager. Watchers has it's good points, the film does have some gory scenes in parts. I'm a fan of Micheal Ironside and it was cool to see him in this film, he always does a great performance in all his films. The OXCOM costume looks kind of cheesy but the camera never really shows the creature fully until near the end of the film. The dog Einstien was impressive since it was well trained.The film sees two genetic experiments escaping from a lab, a dog and a monster. Both experiments are linked telepathically since the two animals are part of a military project were the dog would infiltrate an enemy base then the Creature would attack and eliminate them. The Dog finds a teenager named Travis who takes him home and discovers that he's intelligent and so he names the dog Einstein, meanwhile the OXCOM is roaming around killing people and gouging out their eyes, two Government agents are sent to find the two experiments before this incident gets out of hand. Soon Travis learns that his not safe as the OXCOM is drawn to the dog and will stop at nothing to kill him and anyone in it's way, so Travis and his mom go to rescue his girlfriend who's being held at the hospital by the two agents. They then hideout in the woods while the Government agents and the OXCOM are not far behind.Watchers is not a great adaptation of Dean R. Koontz novel but it is a entraining 80's horror flick, some fans of the book may not want to watch this since it's not faithful to the book but fans of cheesy 80's horror movies may want to check this out.