Watchers II: O Limite do Terror

Watchers 2 (1990)

* (out of 4)

When you've got nothing original to do with a sequel you simply make it a remake and that's the case with Watchers 2, which isn't worth reading about let alone watching. Another government agency has created a new golden retriever, which is just as smart as the one in the first film. Of course, they also get the idea to create another creature and so the movie can continue, the creature and dog escape (again) and bodies begin to pile up while the government runs all over the place trying to track them down. Paul Ferguson (Marc Singer) is the lucky fellow who finds the dog, falls in love with it and must try and fight off the baboon looking monster.

Watchers 2 is pretty much the same movie as the first one, although this time Roger Corman was the actual producer. Apparently he didn't want to spend too much money on a script because there's certainly not one to be found here. While the first movie's monster was silly looking it at least was interesting but that's not the case here. From what I can remember the monster here appears to be the same one as in The Terror Within, another Corman production. Gore hounds might find a few interesting kills but that's not enough to keep your attention through the slow pace that makes this film a real pain to get through.

Two years after the Corey Haim starring vehicle "Watchers", Roger Corman would produce another adaptation of Dean R. Kootnz's best-selling novel. This b-grade sequel is a sober retread changing or adding plot devices and losing the suburban setting for something urban, but probably being a little more faithful to the book as this screenplay would try to delve a bit more deeper in to this top secret experiment of genetic engineering. Here we even get an explanation (nothing special, but it is a reason) to why this creature takes out the eyes of its victim. The hybrid creature known as the Outsider is given human like instincts, but it just can't control what it was engineered to do… track down the super-intelligent dog it shares a physic link with and eliminated all who have been in contact with it. Quite slow-burn and carefully structured, but still providing the grisly shocks throughout this fugitive-on-the-run / creature-on-the-rampage theme. Instead of trying for cheap jolts, it tends to rely on its shady atmospherics (as its spends a lot time in darkly lit areas), edgy suspense (like the sewer sequence) and moody storytelling, where in doing so it doesn't feel quite as silly and dumb-down as its predecessor. Although the man in an unconvincing rubber freak of nature suit, does get a fair bit of screen time. The director doesn't really try to hide the creation either. Technically sound direction with a steady tempo if somewhat a dragged out climax. This time we have Marc Singer and Tracy Scoggins in the leads and they are quite likable. Jonathan Farwell is adequate as the unstable scientist who led the project. Also showing up in a minor turn is Mary Woronov.

"Can't teach an old dog new tricks. Cant ya?"

My review was written in June 1990 after watching the movie on IVE video cassette.

Roger Corman's second try at adapting Dean R. Koontz' bestseller is a marked improvement, yielding a suspenseful thriller. The first pic, Canadian-made, got a spotty release by Universal while the remake is headed straight for video.

Once again a government project developing weaponry for the next war has created two genetically linked superbeings: AE74, a Gill-man type of monster known as the Outsider, and AE73, a beautiful golden retriever named Einstein with amazing intelligence.

The National Security Agency orders this Aesop project terminated, but good-bad guy Jonathan Farwell in charge feels sorry for his critters so he has animal rights advocates st3eal away the lab animals. Outsider kills a few of the do-gooders and escapes as well.

Unlike the 1988 film which cornily emphasized youngster Corey Haim in the lead role, this version is blissfully free of pandering to kids/teens. Marc Singer plays a marine on the way to the stockade for punching a superior officer. Einstein helps him escape from custody. In a clever scene reminiscent of charades, the dog communicates to Singer that he must phone Barbara White (played by Tracy Scoggins), who was his animal psychologist during the project.

Scoggins, Singer and Einstein team up to foil the government heavies, leading to a nice moment of pathos at the climax when Outsider meets his destiny.

Scoggins and Singer make an attractive, personable team. They've already made another video together, "The Raven Red Kiss-Off". Though the Outsdier's bodysuit is a bit fake looking, pic's effects are adequate. Director Thierry Notz keeps the pace crackling and there are several fun scenes of Einstein demonstrating his intelligence.

As Singer's sympathetic ex-wife, Irene Miracle delivers an alluring bubble bath scene that brings back fond memories of her initial exposure in "Midnight Express". Further pulchritude is provided by buxom Raquel Rios, better know as porn star Keisha.

The first Watchers movie, which got a limited Stateside theatrical release, found whatever minor success it attained on home video in the rental utopia that was the late 1980s. It apparently made enough money to tempt Roger Corman into a Direct To Video follow up 2 years later.

Interestingly, well ok, not really, but unusually, Watchers II is actually not a sequel, but essentially a remake of the original. Apparently it's more faithful to the Dean Koontz source material, not being a Corey Haim vehicle, but not having read it I couldn't say for sure.

A top secret government experiment to create the perfect killing machine leads to a hyper intelligent golden retriever, designed to infiltrate enemy bases, and 'the outsider' a genetically modified, humanoid monster psychically linked to the dog that will follow him and kill everyone he's been in contact with in his quest to destroy him. Via shenanigans both escape in a lab accident and the dog is taken in by a helpful stranger who teams up with a helpful and sexy scientist who worked on the project to try and defeat the Outsider and save the dog

I've left that a bit vague because I'm gonna copy and paste it for review in future sequels. The helpful stranger in this case Paul Ferguson (Marc Singer) a soldier on his way to trial by military police whose transport is derailed by the outsider during its escape and the deaths of his fellow soldiers being blamed on him. This beautiful scientist in this entry is Tracy Scoggins.

This is very much DTV material, in terms of acting, direction and effects. Hell, even the cover art is a lame photo that I get the feeling was shot on the last day of filming. Singer and Scoggins are solid enough leads at this level, albeit it makes you wonder if the dog's ability to communicate with Singer is less because it's super intelligent and more because he's the Beastmaster. The dog is the star of the show, which is something of a series staple.

The monster suit is far from the best I've ever seen, though also not even in the bottom 10 rubber monsters you'll find in a Corman movie. Unfortunately the design, particularly of its head, it's awful, and I'm not even sure what they were going for. I've seen others say it's the same suit from The Terror Within (a film also directed by Thierry Notz) which I'm not convinced is the case. It's definitely similar but to be honest I remember that looking better.

Watchers II really isn't very good, but also isn't terrible either. Before watching it, or even reading this I'm sure you'll be well aware if there's any chance of you enjoying a DTV sequel to a Roger Corman movie based on a Dean Koontz novel, and as such view accordingly. It's a watchable (harhar) cheesy horror flick you're unlikely to have any inclination to see a second time.

I still remember how I was curious to know how they could do a sequel to WATCHERS when I saw this movie on a shelf of the video-store. The curiosity grown when I looked at the back of the cover and saw a gore scene not included in the cassette (which has no real bloody shots). Plus, the movie was forbidden for people under 18 - where the first one (here in Italy) was for all audiences. But what I saw wasn't that good I thought. This is not a remake of the original directed by Hess, but a second adaptation of the novel by Koontz (a quiet good horror novel, btw), more close to it (except for the character's names) than the previous. But it's still very far from the book. Besides some changes (this time there's only a scientist who tracks the beast), the main problem is that the monster's look is very far from being scary and the director had the bad idea to show it completely and very early in the story. In Hess' version, instead, we don't clearly see it and even if this is obtained through simple methods (POVs. shaky camera works, long shots in the fog), it works quiet well. Here Notz tries a little bit to create suspense (the creature's shadow on a wall wasn't that bad), but stops quiet early, preferring to show a guy in a cheesy suit who moves like an idiot. As the previous, the most incredible performance is delivered by the dog - and I mean it in a good way.

I still wonder where that gore shot was supposed to be inserted in..