Though best known for light projects, Corey Haim went with darker flicks at times. 1988’s Watchers cast him in an “R”-rated horror tale.

When an explosion at a secret lab occurs, two specimens escape. This releases a golden retriever and a mutated monster known as the OXCOM (Outside Experimental Combat Mammal).

High school student Travis Cornell (Haim) finds the canine, names him “Furface” and takes him in against the wishes of his mother Nora (Barbara Cornell). They soon find themselves pursued by government agent Lem Johnson (Michael Ironside) as well as the violent and dangerous OXCOM.

Although I implied Watchers exists as a major departure for Haim, that probably becomes an overstatement. After all, he worked in 1987’s teen vampire tale The Lost Boys, another “R”-rated horror project.

Also, the tone of Watchers can lean light. We get plenty of “boy and his dog” comedy and bonding.

Still, given that I think most remember Haim via his goofy teen comedies with Corey Feldman, Watchers seems unusual. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it good.

Watchers feels more than a little like ET the Extra-Terrestrial crossed with an animal attack flick. We get plenty of suburban kid fare punctuated by moments of terror and violence.

This means we get an unsatisfying mix of genres. Not scary enough for horror fans but too gory for general audiences, Watchers fails to find a real groove.

It doesn’t help that Haim becomes an irritating presence. As annoying as he can be in real life, at least Corey Feldman boasted actual acting chops.

Haim couldn’t create such a claim. As with his other roles, Haim’s sole facial expression remains “mouth agape”. The dog who plays Furface offers a performance with more range.

Filmmaker Jon Hess made no discernible impact as a director and Watchers demonstrates why. As he tells the story, Watchers becomes a muddled mess that lurches from scene to scene with little clarity or logic.

I couldn’t find a budget for Watchers, but I’m betting “cheap”. For instance, the movie almost always represents OXCOM via first-monster camerawork.

In a different movie, I might think of this as a creative choice. Here I strongly suspect they opted to keep OXCOM off-camera to save effects money.

Of course, low budget doesn’t need to equal bad, and I suspect even if Hess had gotten a ton of cash to make Watchers, it’d still stink. Nothing about this clunker works.

Watchers appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This wound up as a pretty appealing image.

My only real complaint came from some prominent telecine wobble at times. While not a persistent issue, too many scenes bobbed slightly from side to side.

Overall delineation looked good. The movie’s photographic style meant sharpness could lean a little soft at times but those elements usually fared fine.

No issues with shimmering or jaggies materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain remained light but suitable and print flaws remained absent.

Watchers went with a low-key palette that favored earthy tones. While these never seemed especially vibrant, they nonetheless represented the design choices.

Blacks seemed pretty rich, which shadows offered appropriate clarity. Despite some softness and wobble, the movie usually looked good.

1988 felt a little late in the game for a DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack, but we got that here. Speech became largely natural and the lines lacked edginess.

Neither music nor effects boasted great range, but they seemed more than adequate and didn’t suffer from notable distortion. Though a competent mono track, the audio seemed mediocre for its era.

In terms of extras, we get four interviews. The first features director Jon Hess and spans 20 minutes, 38 seconds.

Hess discusses how he got into movies as well as aspects of the Watchers production. Hess creates a brief but informative overview.

Next we hear from actor Michael Ironside. His interview goes for 18 minutes, 13 seconds.

Ironside looks at his time on Watchers and his thoughts about the flick. Ironside offers a blunt take on his view of the flick as well as issues during the shoot.

Actor Barbara Williams sits for her own 12-minute, four-second conversation that gets into her career and memories of Watchers. She offers some engaging notes.

Finally, we hear from actor Lala Sloatman in a piece that occupies 22 minutes, 22 seconds and covers her relationship with Corey Haim and the impact during the progression. Sloatman ensures we get a frank view of these domains.

A Stills Gallery presents a running montage with 92 images that represent promo items, shots from the set and ads. It becomes a good compilation.

The disc opens with an ad for Guyver: Dark Hero. We also get the movie’s trailer and a TV spot.

A horror flick with a splash of teen shenanigans, Watchers can’t get out of its own way. The movie suffers from a poorly told story and a lack of dramatic momentum. The Blu-ray comes with pretty good visuals, adequate but dated audio and a small allotment of supplements. Even die-hard Corey Haim fans won’t want to bother with this crummy film.