meddlecore Corey Haim and his mom find a super intelligent dog that has escaped from a secret research facility. The dog is being hunted down by a genetically engineered sasquatch called Oxcom- who has a penchant for gouging people's eyes out.The trio are on the lam, while the men in beige from the NSO are trying to find them, so they can cover the whole fiasco up...mainly, that the Oxcom is responsible for several recent murders in town.The dog and Oxcom are telepathically linked, so they cannot hide from one another...and it is so vindictive...it will try and kill any and everyone the dog has come into contact with.So there's only one decision to be made: how to fight it.This is based on a Dean Koontz novel (that I haven't read), but I can imagine people being disappointed by it's mildly cheesy nature, if they were expecting more.The dog actor was lovable. But I was kind of hoping Corey Haim was going to sacrifice himself to save the rest of his family. Oh, well. At least he throat shanks that one dude. That's a nice consolation.The sasquatch/Oxcom thing was pretty bad...which is probably why they barely show it for more than a second at a time throughout the whole film.But it's still kind of entertaining, probably because of the dog. Yea. Definitely because of the dog.5 out of 10.

movieman_kev Lem (Michael Ironside) is tasked with finding an experimental dog that escaped from a government facility, not knowing that a teenager, Travis (the late Corey Haim) has since, reluctantly, 'adopted' the dog for his own. However, a second escapee, this one much less benevolent, is also on the loose.Hollywood has had a history of screwing up Dean Koontz's source material. The later more abysmal "Hidaway" would further prove that sad fact. So coming at this film as a bastardized adaptation of his novel would be like shooting fish in a barrel. As such, I won't and shall try to take this movie on its own merits (or more appropriately, lack there of) Starting with the main gripe against this movie, simple and trite dialog (specifically, the banter between Travis, his mom and the dog is cringe-worthy and borders sitcom-level awfulness) quite frankly, the only actor that even attempts to not embarrass himself in this movie is Ironside himself, yet sadly he finds that goal foiled at every turn. One could only imagine what would have been if the writers strike didn't adversely affect the quality of this movie. But what is is and what is, isn't good.

michael_wasson No one has ever argued that Koontz is the second coming of Shakespeare. But the man has put out some very entertaining and intriguing (albeit formulamatic) horror novels.Yet, when they decided to make Watchers (one of his more thoughtful and provoking title) did the writer of the screenplay say "Hey! Why don't we change the story and make it a teen slasher AND use it as a Coerey Haim vehicle!? I will tell you why! Because it made it suck!They changed the whole plot, setting and most of the story and basically forced the audience to watch teen pretty boy Haim, doe-eye his way through a performance.

The_Void I would consider myself a fan of Dean Koontz; having read a number of his novels and liked them all, but unfortunately I never got around to reading Watchers so I'm left with no choice but to rate this film on it's own merits rather than comparing it to the book that I haven't read. I went into this expecting something awful, and while I didn't exactly get a brilliant horror film; I am lead to believe that it's fans of the book that are rating it down because as a film in it's own right, Watchers is an entertaining and somewhat original little horror movie. The plot obviously takes some influence from Predator and begins with an explosion at a research lab. It's not long before a rancher is killed by some strange beast and the boyfriend of the dead man's daughter has picked up an ultra-intelligent runaway dog. A secret Government agency is soon on the case, as the murders continue. The boy continues to be fascinated by the dog's intelligence, but it somehow ties in with the murders and the agency is soon on his tail too.The script for this film was originally written by Paul Haggis, who later disowned it. I don't know why – the writing here is nowhere near as ridiculous as his 2004 hit Crash! Anyway, the main reason this film works is undoubtedly the dog, who aside from being rather cute, is also the best actor in the film. Corey Haim, hot off the success of The Lost Boys is the human lead and actually has a rather good chemistry with the dog, although it is a little bit ridiculous seeing him talk to it most of the way through the film. The plot is rather convoluted and as such the film is more than a little bit messy; but the ridiculousness of it all pulls it through during the more awkward moments. Michael Ironside also appears in the film and does well as the 'bad cop' side of the Government agents. The monster is, of course, one of the most interesting things about the film and the way it goes around killing people is always entertaining and gory; although unfortunately we don't get to see a lot of it and when we finally do it's rather disappointing - obviously the filmmakers had seen Bigfoot and the Hendersons! Still, this is the sort of film that can be easily enjoyed despite the numerous problems and I'd recommend to any undiscerning viewer of eighties horror.