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Watchers Reborn

Watchers Reborn (1998) Movie Poster
  •  USA  •    •  90m  •    •  Directed by: John Carl Buechler.  •  Starring: Mark Hamill, Lisa Wilcox, Stephen Macht, Gary Collins, Lou Rawls, Bob Clendenin, Melissa Cross, Shawn David Thompson, Lucy Lin, Milton Kahn, Tony Guma, Gary J. Wayton, Kane Hodder.  •  Music by: Terry Plumeri.
       An extra-smart dog and detective team up to stop a DNA enhanced killer.

Trailers:

   Length:  Languages:  Subtitles:
 1:22
 
 

Review:

Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Image from: Watchers Reborn (1998)
Watchers Reborn starts in a science lab where Dr. Grace Hudson (Lisa Wilcox) has been experimenting with DNA to create a mutated monster known as the 'Outsider' & a super intelligent Golden Retriever named Einstein who are telepathically linked to each other. Since everyone likes Einstein & give him pats on the head, they talk to him nicely & spoil him with lots of dog biscuits the Outsider becomes jealous & resentful of him. The Outsider manages to escape in an attempt to kill Einstein but the clever little fella he is Einstein manages to crawl through an air vent & to the safety of Los Angeles outside the lab, however the Outsider is still on his tail (Ha!). Homicide Detectives Murphy (Mark Hamil) & his partner Gus (Gary Collins) are called to a murder & discover a horribly mutilated security guard together with Einstein, Murphy takes a liking to Einstein & decides to take him to the pound (!). Gus isn't having any of it & takes Einstein home with him but is soon killed by the Outsider in it's relentless search for Einstein, as Murphy investigates he becomes aware of the truth & a target of NSA agents who want to keep the whole thing quiet...

Directed by John Carl Buechler who also is credited with the special creature effects Watchers Reborn is the fourth entry in the Watchers series of films & to date the last. The script by Sean Dash is based on the novel by Dean R. Koontz but I'm not sure how closely. The film moves along at a fair pace, it drags a little in the middle but it passed the time well enough & just about enough happened to maintain my interest. Watchers Reborn isn't exactly the best film ever made that's for sure but if your expectations aren't too high & you like cheap horror films you could do a lot worse. Watchers Reborn features telepathic monsters, shadowy Government agencies, DNA experiments, a trial of Oranges, a Golden Retriever who appears to be more intelligent than half the people I know (& he can write better too) & the one & only Luke Skywalker. What more do you want? I've seen better but I've also seen worse.

Special effects man turned director Buechler does an OK job, the film isn't much to look at but then what did you expect? I've noticed that the Outsider in each Watchers film looks completely different to the one in the previous entry, this time the Outsider looks more like a Werewolf & in certain shots like a Gorilla, overall it's a pretty cheap looking monster suit. There's some reasonable gore, someone has their eye pulled out, there are plenty of spilled guts & blood, severed hands & arms. The action scenes are dumb & not that exciting, it's not scary & I don't get why the Outsider never kills Murphy? The Outsider kills everyone else he meets but not Murphy it just hits him & knocks him out, answers on a postcard please.

Technically Watchers Reborn is pretty cheap looking, it's OK but that's about the best I can say about it. The acting isn't up to much & what the Hell happened to Mark Hamil after Star Wars (1977)? How did he end up in something like this?

Watchers Reborn is an OK time waster, it'll pass 90 odd minutes but little else. The other Watchers films are Watchers (1988), Watchers II (1990) & Watchers III (1994) which I personally think is the best of the bunch even though that ain't saying much.


Review by Paul Andrews from the Internet Movie Database.