Set on dark, vile laneways of dreary Dublin in lashing rains that drain to antiquated sewer systems and hidden underground rivers. In mysterious archaic tunnels that link a secret chamber below Trinity College with creepy catacombs extending throughout the city. In old Irish churches and musty libraries, depressing hospitals and gloomy community centers.

 

The Watchers explores the origins of evil, based on the biblical story of the fallen angels, children of God who left heaven to consort with human women and corrupted all creation. As told in the actual Book of Enoch, an ancient Hebrew apocalyptic religious text, their offspring were giants wreaking havoc on earth, devouring men and drinking blood and teaching humanity their evil, supernatural arts. When society cries out for help, God sends His archangel Michael to defeat their leader and cleanse the earth of wickedness with the Great Flood.

 

Main Characters: Mick (30s) a cocky and cynical detective with no time for priests and their sneaky religious shyte, Malachi (60s) a troubled, estranged from his family detective with a warm face but haunted eyes;

Toby (12) a clairvoyant orphan chosen to join a secret religious order safeguarding the book;

Lilith (30s) a posh, English antiquarian occult expert with unique knowledge of the secret order;

Sam (40s) an American CIA agent and friend of Lilith’s helping with the investigation; Groban and Mucker (30s) brutal mercenary thugs hired to obtain the book;

Father Tim (30s) Malachi’s parish priest, well meaning but a bit too earnest in his delivery.

 

 

Our story starts on the flaming destruction and carnage of a desert village in ancient days. Barbaric rapists and killers, their eyes scratched bloody and red, trek into the mountains with their plunder and prize - captured women and children, chained animals and newfound slaves. A heinous parade.

In a huge underground cavern the spoils of war are reckoned and devoured. A true den of iniquity. An orgy from hell. At the forefront is a great altar adorned with profane paintings of sacrificial suffering showcasing a large, ornately ornamented BOOK. An object of supreme reverence.

 

A powerful CHIEFTAIN, bedecked in ceremonial garb, ascends the altar, eyes unlike the others, brilliantly clear and cold as ice. He lifts the exalted tome, kisses it, and raises it high above his head. His followers immediately interrupt their depravity and drop to their knees in worship, blood at their mouths.

 

And the Lord said to the archangel Michael: “Destroy all the souls addicted to lust, and the offspring of the Watchers, for they have tyrannized over mankind.” - the Book of Enoch And we HEAR a transcendent Church choir, singing an Irish funeral hymn - "Be Thou My Vision.” The open casket of Father O’Hare (90s) his eyes closed but mangled and scarred from long ago. A long line of priests pay their respects, but a Father Monahan furtively removes the dead priests ring.

 

A Father Brogan visits a bleak orphanage late at night to escort Toby, still in his pajamas, to the long library of Trinity College, past the Book of Kells exhibit, and down a stairwell into the catacombs leading to a secret chamber where Father Monahan prepares for a sacred ritual. It’s there they undress him.

 

The two priests, also scarred and blind, put him in a robe, secure him to a chair and strap a diabolical helmet of strange hinges and ghastly protruding spikes on his head. They take the ancient book from a golden case and reveal it to Toby, who thrashes against his bonds … and they blind him. A horrid wail of pain. When Father Monahan places the filched ring on Toby’s finger, the boy has a vision of the priest’s throat getting slashed.

 

An urgent call disrupts the Sunday mornings of our detectives partners. Malachi during Mass, after which his estranged wife has agreed to speak to him, so long as Father Tim is there. At all times. Mick from sleeping off his night. They’re led to the secret chamber and the bloody bodies of two blind priests. They see the golden case and the helmet and … a child’s pajamas. A flashback shows Mucker and Groban barging in and killing the priests, and Mick suspects the boy was rescued.

 

Toby, drenched and filthy, eyes mangled, is pulled from a sewer grate, comatose, and taken to hospital, where Mick and Malachi visit him. Mucker and Groban, meanwhile, kidnap a local Asian woman and hide out in her home with the book. Mucker is falling under its spell, clawing at his eyes, as Groban connects with whoever hired them to get it - and demands more money. It’s agreed, if he finishes off the boy. He heads for the hospital.

 

The mysterious Dublin sewer system - a wild and elaborate network of medieval Victorian tunnels and waterways crisscrossing underneath the city - is explained to Mick and Malachi by a creepy Underground Man as they try to figure out how the boy got away. “Be the backbone of the flood system if it was any kind of fuckin’ system at all. But it ain’t."

 

Back at the hospital Mick meets Lilith visiting Toby, hoping to offer a small bit of comfort for his misfortune, which Mick points out hasn’t been reported. “Detective Duffy, if I relied on the press for my information, I’d be even more lost than you.” She explains that she’s a trader in antiquities. “Books, mostly.” They agree to meet for a drink.

 

Disguised as a doctor, Groban goes to Toby’s room, but Toby’s panic tips off Malachi and there’s a shootout. Mick arrives just in time and kills Groban. Frenzied, Toby mutters in an unknown language. Mick meets Lilith at her fancy hotel. He tries the tough cop routine but she’s unflappable.