I grew up loving the stories of changelings and I think the fairy kind of lore is really wonderful because it's it's childlike and it's also very mature and sensual there's this like coexistence of darkness and beauty that really resonated with me and to be able to kind of think about what what they would be like in today's world was just a dream I've been writing Gothic Hara stories for 10 years now so they've always been set in like the 19th century they've always had a very particular vibe to them so I wanted to do a story that was more contemporary and a blend of the gothic got kind of styling and atmosphere but also with Irish folk horror cuz I don't think it's been tapped and it's a wonderful Source basically all the stories we hear growing up they're all in essence Horror Stories the Watchers were inspired by a race called Tu the Danon these kind of ancient fairy creatures who are these tall statuesque beautiful Godlike creatures who come into society they're a wonderful Craftsmen they're renowned for their art they were just beautiful and then when the mesan came to Ireland in 1700 B.C and they were to become the the Irish people they banished the tuanan underground so we've combined the two the Donan with another element of Irish folklore which is the changeling so the changeling was this shape shifter so I've taken this ability this unique trait that the changelings have and given this to the two ad hadon because they changings they naturally adapted to the darkness of their environment so eyes became nocturnal skin over time became susceptible to to Daylight like it became like a weakness to it they just became the Watchers because they were imprisoned under there they became leaner and longer the claws and the teeth were better for digging out tunnels and over the centuries they just forgot who they were and now after all these centuries they're different and dark and they're angry and vengeful 104 take three A's Vision she put a wonderful emphasis on the on the mythology and how the the ancient Irish history is woven into the into the horror of the Watchers throughout the process my goal was just to deepen this kind of idea of getting to know a species like the Tua that was like the main kind of driving force as I was redrafting scripts it was just me wanting to go deeper and imagining like meline needs to have a real name she needs to have a name that she's referred to by her own kind in Ron was a name for meline that aana came up with a loose translation would mean kind of the strange one which makes perfect sense for meline because she doesn't really fit in anywhere meline was looked upon by the others as you know something an oddity or even resented so she really didn't have a home you know someone much more to her than just another Watcher who was left above ground when they were banished under yeah I can't find any earlier that's the place so I think it's part of growing up in Ireland that it's almost a part of you really that the the the landscape and mythology and folklore all kind of entwined I think that these old stories because they're such a part of the Irish psyche I think that a lot of us would still in some way kind of believe them like Sur there's a reason why they've survived all these centuries there might be some little great the truth that's kept it alive and that's all you need really to make the heart more believable it's so deep and Rich and rings so true because it's based on Irish folklore many many many many generations have been talking about these stories and you can feel the depth of it that once upon a time people beli this that this was true there was ancient storytellers that Al was referencing and then we were we were taking his knowledge and then making it a kind of Shyamalan contemporary Thriller most of my life has been about trying to rationalize how these kind of magical things could exist in today's world you can feel that in the movies this sense of like if they could exist and that can be a very uncomfortable feeling