BAD MOVIE REVIEW: Watchers: Reborn (1998)

Aahhh...that's better.  Man after fighting to get through part 3 this was a welcome addition.  What a nice piece of redemption this film is.  It isn't without its embarassments and screw ups but hey, what would the Watchers series be without it.

Four attempts at the same storyline and they still can't seem to get it right.  With Watchers: Reborn it is at least tolerable.  All of the Watchers films go like this...super smart dog genetically bred telepathically with super smart ugly ass monster.  The dog goes in to warm up to the enemy and the monster comes in behind him killing them all.  Well the experiments go wrong and they both escape...then chaos ensues.  In Reborn they show a lot better about how and why they are doing what they are doing.  It's good to see they actually cared for the viewer instead of assuming they'd read the book.  In essence, Reborn is kind of deceptive.  The storyline is pretty much the same, the creature's names are the same.  They sure clung onto that Einstein name pretty hard.  There's so much about this film that is the same that its hard to call it a reboot.

The cast in this film is a major upswing from part 3.  First there was the Beastmaster kicking Watcher ass, now its Luke Skywalker and the Dream Master!  Yes, Mark Hamill of the Star Wars fame and Lisa Wilcox of the Nightmare on Elm Street 4 & 5 fame team up to bring down the big bad wolf in this installment of Watchers.  There are a few other welcome "faces" along for the ride too.  It's good to see some talent back in the limelight.  It makes the experience so much more worth it.  But I will say...never and I mean NEVER would Lisa Wilcox want to jump Mark Hamill's bones.  That's just gross.  (she must have gotten some nice money to make out with him, or maybe she's just a major nerd)

Four Watchers films and three monster failures.  The first one was good except you never saw the damn thing long enough to tell how gross it was.  The second was just a cheap suit that was shown too much.  The third was slightly better than the second but just slightly.  Now in part four, a monster a horror fan can be proud of.  The face moves, the puppetry is so much better, and the hair is back.  It looks like a bigfoot/puppy dog hybrid.  The way it should be.  Well at least the way I want it to be.  It actually is pretty scary and monstrous.  I loved it!

Now there are some out there that would argue this movie is awful.  I found it rather entertaining and fun.  **SPOILER** Those that hate it probably hate it for one reason...the monster talks.  "Pet me!" it begs.  Aawww...it just wants some love.  Poor thing.  Now I like the fucking monster!  He's not scary anymore, he just wants to be loved.  God damn it.  I wanted that thing to tear through people and then explode at the end.  Now it has feelings and wants attention.  You know, I actually kind of liked it.  It brought the cuteness back.  It was directed completely at something different, but it was kind of heartwarming.  **END SPOILER**

Alright so was it worth it?  Was the series worth it?  Like most horror series there's always at least one black sheep in the family.  There's always that one that was made for the sake of being made and its so bad nobody wants to think about it.  Well Watchers is no different, part three was pretty bad and you can read my review on it via the Bad Movie Reviews page.  But at least they pushed on and tried to redeem themselves of that embarassment.  I think they succeeded but there are those that would disagree.  I don't even know if Concorde/New Horizons is still around.  I very highly doubt it.  I kind of remember hearing Lionsgate has the films in their library.  It would be really cool to see another reboot sequel or maybe even a remake.  I hate to say it but the fans of the book could use a good version on film.  In any case, I liked the series.  I thought it was insane and crazy.  Some of it was a waste but its just your average horror series.  You won't find anything worth coming back to over and over again.  Well maybe the dog.