An intellectually enhanced dog escapes from an experimental facility followed by a creature who is obsessed with hunting the animal. The chase lands the two on a farm property where they cause just enough commotion to interrupt the teenage love making of Tracey and Travis (Corey Haim). I would say Haim was cock blocked, but he didn’t seem nearly as into it as she was anyway. Travis, after seeing Tracey’s dad come out to investigate the noise makes a break for his truck to avoid confrontation. As he begins pulling away the dog jumps into the truck’s box putting a target on Travis and everyone else it comes in contact with. As Travis discovers and attempts to sneak the dog through his house without alerting his mother that he stole the truck and now has a dog in her house, the scene flashes back to the creature killing Tracey’s dad. This kill is pretty dry, thankfully the movie gets more and more graphic as it progresses! Police show up lead by Lem (Michael Ironside) to investigate the crime scene. The two leading officers hold Tracey drugged to use both as bait for the creature and for their own sinister purposes. Although Watchers has been dismissed by the majority I always take the opportunity to see movies starring 80’s icons in their prime and this time I’m glad I do. Watchers should be officially added to the list of solid Haim flicks; sure the creature looks like a bad cross between the crate Yeti from Creepshow and a Gargantuan from War of the Gargantua’s, and a genius dog with a dumb name like Furface is as annoying as it is insulting, but is that enough to drop this to the less than mediocre level it’s known for? I don’t think so.
