Mirrors are superficially meant to reflect how people are physically presented to the world. However, they ultimately serve as a way for the outside world to put those steered by their emotions, including vanity, on display to be judged by others, especially those they don’t intimately know. Up-and-coming genre auteur, Ishana Night Shyamalan, reflected on the works of her Oscar-nominated father, M. Night Shyamalan, to explore that concept in the new supernatural horror movie, ‘The Watchers, ‘ which New Line Cinema is releasing in theaters this Friday, June 7.

Ishana, who previously penned and helmed several episodes of her father’s psychological horror television series, ‘Servant,’ made her feature film directorial and writing debuts on ‘The Watchers.’ Like with his famous genre movies, notably ‘The Sixth Sense,’ ‘The Watchers,’ which he served as a producer on, is a well-paced supernatural horror feature that’s driven by a high-concept premise.

The new drama infuses the darkness of Grimms’ fairy tales into a contemporary thriller. The new film, which is based on the novel of the same name by A.M. Shine, emphasizes the importance of people contemplating who they are without being influenced by the watchful gaze of the outside world.

‘The Watchers’ follows Mina (Dakota Fanning), a 28-year-old artist, as her boss at a pet store in Galway, Ireland asks her to deliver a parrot to a zoo near Belfast. She agrees, as she doesn’t wish to contend with the upcoming anniversary of her mother’s death, as well as her estranged twin sister’s attempt to reconnect with her during the emotional time.

During Mina’s journey, she must drive through a sprawling forest, and stops for gas before she enters the remote location. However, she fails to notice the board plastered with multiple Missing Person posters from the surrounding area.

Upon entering the forest, Mina’s car breaks down, which leads her to start walking in her quest to find help. After ducking out of the way of a flock of birds, she sees an older woman, Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), who motions her to follow.

The stranger leads the protagonist to a concrete, steel-doored shelter she calls The Coop, which she shares with fellow stranded travelers Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan). The trio inform Mina that mysterious creatures known as The Watchers descend on the building every night at sunset to observe them until the following morning. The humans must stand in a line in front of a wall that becomes a mirror so that the creatures can observe them.

Madeline warns the group’s newest member that madness-inducing hallucinations can be induced by venturing too far into the forest and looking at a Watcher. The older woman, who’s the leader of the group, also advises Mina to stay out of the burrows where the creatures hide during daylight hours, and to never turn her back to the mirror.

Despite Madeline’s advisement, Mina is determined to do whatever it takes to find a way to escape the forest and save herself and her fellow prisoners – even if it means that she has to stop judging herself, and allowing others’ assessments of her define her self-worth.

Ishana was joined by several of the movie’s cast, including Fanning; Finnegan; Fouéré; Campbell; Hannah Dargan, who plays Young Mina; Emily Dargan who portrays Young Lucy (Mina’s twin sister); Siobhan Hewlett, who played Mina and Lucy’s mother in flashbacks; and Alistair Brammer at the feature’s World Premiere at New York City’s AMC Lincoln Square theater this past Sunday, June 2. The filmmaker and cast members took the time to introduce the thriller before the screening, which can be viewed in the above video.