Watchers II

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.

More like the novel than the original, but still unsatisfying. Had its parts that where fun, but still kinda corny. Quality was dark and couldn't see what was going 80% of the time. But still I liked it.

Original seemed to be more satisfying, but if your looking for a more novel like movie of Watchers - Watch it. 6/10 Because it wasn't boring, and I enjoyed a few more scenes. Yeah, watch it. Hey, it was better than the Koontz adaptation of Phantoms and Hideaway.

IMDb won't let me place this unless its longer.

Fine. I do own this on DVD, so it's not too bad. But if you want a REALLY GOOD Koontz adaptation see DEMON SEED. Now thats excellent. WATCH IT!!!!!

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.

This sequel to "Watchers" is just a reworking of the original. Or, more accurately, it uses Dean Koontz's original story as the basis for yet another "Predator" knock-off. Pretty lame, with some terribly unconvincing effects (check out that severed head), but an amazingly well-trained dog yet again saves the day (i.e., at least makes the movie bearable). (*1/2)

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.