Watchers II (1990)

1990
Directed by Thierry Notz
Starring Marc Singer, Tracy Scoggins, Timothy Marlowe, Jonathan Farwell and Irene Miracle

A few months back, I reviewed the original Watchers, the Corey Haim-ified 1988 adaptation of Dean Koontz' rip-roaring book of the same name.  Reaction to it was, by and large, was pretty damn awful.  Most of the complaints seemed to stem from two things.  One, it just wasn't all that much like the novel.  Two, it starred Corey Haim.  Really, I've never seen what is so bad about it.  If you're judging it based on the merits of whether or not it stuck to the source material, yeah, it was indeed the ultimate failure.  As a fourth grader watching it, though, none of that stuff mattered, as it was a movie with some nifty gore effects and Corey Haim.  Yeah, I was a mark for Corey Haim, but that admission doesn't mean much.  My coolness card expired long ago, anyway.

So...Watchers II.  Released a mere two years after the original, it really isn't a "sequel" in the true definition of the word rather than a complete, total redux.  Set free on video store shelves in 1990 (theatrical? not hardly), this Roger Corman-produced flick frequently gets compliments for being more faithful to the source novel than the original, which is something that continues to befuddle me to this day.  Does it have older lead characters like the book?  Yeah.  But that's about it.  It's also got a much flatter, dingier look and a MUCH more ridiculous, rubbery-looking monster.  With that, let's get to it.

For the uninitiated, the standard Watchers formula is as follows: the government has created two genetically-engineered animal weapons.  One is a vicious, murderous baboon, the other an angelic golden retriever.  Both have super intelligence.  They share a psychic link, and the baboon really, really hates the dog and wants to see it dead.  This movie doesn't deviate too far from that formula, with the exception of making its main hero Paul Ferguson (Singer, who does a decent enough acting job given the material) a military man at all sorts of odds with his employers.  When both of the animals escape (in a pretty damn ludicrous plot by The Government involving letting some animal rights activists into their facility to cause havoc, because you know that's going to end well), Paul finds himself with a new pet and hunted by the far more homicidal, far less cute beast.  I will give it to Dean Koontz here - this plot device, with a homicidal-inclined genetic super baboon being able to psychically track a dog and his human companion leaving breadcrumbs of death scenes in its wake, was a stroke of genius that rivals anything Stephen King has come up with, and it's a concept that is interesting no matter how rough the execution can be.  More on that later.

Now for some more of the movie's good stuff.  Much like the original, this movie has some fun with the dog's super smarts in the sequences where Singer gradually discovers just what the hell he is dealing with - they're actually some of the best bits of the film.  Insert your own Beastmaster jokes here when it comes to this guy bonding with his furry costars.  Along the way, he reunites the dog with its trainer at the facility (Scoggins, who is still red hot no matter how much the costume designers tried to nerdify her with the standard "thick glasses" treatment for this movie), and the two of them wind up on the run not only from the creature but from the authorities, who are pinning all of the monster's killings on Paul.  Screenwriters of the world, take note.  Stakes are important, and this flick has loads of it.

That's the good news when it comes to Watchers II, as it has a human side peppered in between some admittedly cool death scenes.  Unfortunately, it's also got a much less interesting group of supporting characters than the original.  That movie had Michael Ironside as this kind of ruthless government hitman given added menace by the fact that, well, he's Michael Ironside.  This time around, we've only got the shadowy government scientist (Farwell) responsible for this whole mess doing his best to track down both animals.  The character is a BIG step down from the slimy douches that we grew to know and loathe in the original film. 

In addition to that, this movie was filmed on the cheap, and it shows.  Now, a movie's budget is never a reason to see it.  Hell, these days I would MUCH rather spend money on a film with a sub-$1 million budget than anything the major studios churn out.  This movie, though, is cheap, and looks it - particularly the monster.  He may not have been a Stan Winston-esque creation in the first film, but it was Bruce the Shark compared to what we're given here.  Namely, a very, very phony-looking bigfoot creation filmed almost entirely in shadow to disguise the fact that the construction of the costume was indeed so crappy.  It isn't scary at all, and it's exacerbated by the very flat direction from Thierry Notz.  He seemed to be going for a dark, dank motif, kind of similar to what Joseph Zito did with Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.  Here, it just makes the film look INCREDIBLY second-rate, especially in the film's finale sequence done in the big city streets and tunnels.

I think that about covers it.  Watchers II, just like the original film and the book that both movies are based on, has a killer concept and a couple of fairly likable lead characters.  Both Singer and Scoggins really dig into their roles and do an excellent job getting you on their sides.  The problem is that the human villains come off as cartoon characters, and the nonhuman villain is even more of one.  Oh, and it's got a middle section that REALLY drags.  You've been warned.

** out of ****.  Worth a watch if you catch it on SyFy one lonely Saturday afternoon, which is exactly how I watched it.  Otherwise, avoid.