Watch They're Watching

They're Watching is a horror-comedy film that was released in 2016. The story follows a group of American filmmakers who travel to a remote Eastern European village to make a documentary about a woman named Becky Westlake, who has bought an old house and is renovating it. The film initially opens with a clip of the cheesy reality show, Home Hunters International, that is tracking Becky's progress on renovating the old house. However, things quickly begin to take a turn once the filmmakers arrive in the village. The villagers are not particularly welcoming, and tensions simmer between the Americans and the locals from the start.

The filmmakers are made up of two main characters: Greg (Kris Lemche), the director and Alex (David Alpay), the cameraman. The rest of their team includes Sarah (Mia Marcon), Paul (Branko Tomovic), and Kate (Carrie Genzel). The villagers are played by Dimitri Diatchenko, Cristian Balint, and Angela Dalfen.

As the crew becomes increasingly frustrated with the slow progress of the renovation work, they inadvertently insult the holy goat of the village, which is a local legend. They soon discover that the villagers take their beliefs about the goat very seriously and that they have awoken some kind of ancient curse.

What follows is a comedy horror film that sees the camera crew battling for survival against an increasingly hostile and supernatural force.

The film's premise is a clever twist on the found footage format made popular by films like The Blair Witch Project. The mock reality show serves as a framing device for the film, and the majority of the action is shot from the perspective of Alex's camera. The film's cinematography is excellent, and the shot composition is as impressive as it is unsettling at times.

The film gleefully subverts audience expectations by purposely making the first half of the film seem like a cliche reality show setup, complete with cheesy voiceovers and staged interviews. However, the film takes an unexpected turn halfway through, and the horror elements become more pronounced.

The film's comedy is hit or miss, and some jokes land better than others. However, the film's horror elements more than make up for this, and it provides some genuinely creepy moments. The film's setting in a remote Eastern European village adds to the atmosphere and often feels like a character in its own right.

One of the film's most impressive feats is the way it balances humor and horror. The film manages to be both scary and funny simultaneously without ever feeling tonally inconsistent.

Perhaps the film's weakest aspect is its characters. While the actors all do an excellent job with what they're given, the characters themselves are relatively one-dimensional, and their motivations are sometimes unclear. The film would have benefited from some further exploration of the characters, although the film's fast-paced action more than makes up for this.

Overall, They're Watching is a fun horror-comedy that is well worth checking out for fans of the genre. While it doesn't reinvent the wheel, it's an entertaining film that has a unique premise and delivers some solid scares.

They're Watching is a 2016 thriller with a runtime of 1 hour and 35 minutes. It has received mostly poor reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 5.6 and a MetaScore of 39.