Watchers Reborn is the 1998

1988 in film

-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...

 sequel

Sequel

A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...

 to the Canadian horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 Watchers. Starring Star Wars

Star Wars

Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...

veteran Mark Hamill

Mark Hamill

Mark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...

, the film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 is loosely based on the novel Watchers

Watchers (novel)

Watchers is a 1987 suspense novel by American author, Dean Koontz. Along with Strangers, Lightning, and Midnight, Watchers is credited with cementing Koontz's status as a best-selling author.-Plot Summary:...

by Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz

Dean Ray Koontz is a prolific American author best known for his novels which could be described broadly as suspense thrillers. He also frequently incorporates elements of horror, science fiction, mystery, and satire. A number of his books have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List, with...

.

Plot

Ever since he lost his wife and son in a devastating fire, Detective Jack Murphy (Mark Hamill

Mark Hamill

Mark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...

) has wandered around life in a fog. But he is forced to face his terrifying memories when his partner Gus is killed in a mysterious slaying. Killed in a manner too brutal to be human, too clever to be animal, the only clues to Gus's death are a vagabond golden retriever

Golden Retriever

The Golden Retriever is a medium-sized breed of dog. They were historically developed as gundogs to retrieve shot waterfowl such as ducks and upland game birds during hunting and shooting parties. As such, they were bred to have a soft mouth to retrieve game undamaged and have an instinctive love...

 and Dr. Grace Hudson (Lisa Wilcox

Lisa Wilcox

Lisa E. Wilcox is an American actress who has starred in film and television.-Movie career:Wilcox's best known film role is in the 1988 hit horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master as Alice Johnson. In 1989, she reprised the role in the sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The...

), the beautiful scientist who seeks him out. Dr. Hudson tells Jack that Einstein, the dog, is actually one half of a super-secret government experiment. With an IQ of 140, the dog was designed as a tracker for a genetically engineered killing machine known as the Outsider. Jack and Grace must stop the Outsider from killing again while preventing Lem Johnson (Stephen Macht

Stephen Macht

Stephen Robert Macht is an American television and film actor.-Early life:Macht was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was raised in Brooklyn Heights, NY, until his father's death. At age nine, he moved with his mother and older brother to live with his maternal grandfather, a haberdasher, in...

) and the NSA from terminating the experiment... killing everyone who has knowledge of its existence. But how do you stop a creature genetically predestined for murder?

Release

The sequel did not receive the benefit of a theatrical release that the original did. Instead, the film went straight-to-video. The film was released on a DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 by New Concorde Home Entertainment in 2004. The film is notable in that Jason Voorhees

Jason Voorhees

Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...

 actor Kane Hodder

Kane Hodder

Kane Warren Hodder is an American actor and stuntman. Standing , he is best known for his portrayal of Jason Voorhees in four films from the Friday the 13th film series . He is also known for his role as Victor Crowley in Hatchet. -Career:Hodder is the only actor to portray Jason Voorhees more...

, who had previously worked with Buechler on Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood is the seventh installment in the original Friday the 13th series, released in 1988. It also marked the first appearance of Kane Hodder in the role of Jason Voorhees.-Plot:...

, has a minor role sans make-up. Also, musical legend Lou Rawls

Lou Rawls

Louis Allen "Lou" Rawls was an American soul, jazz, and blues singer. He was known for his smooth vocal style: Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game"...

 has a minor role as the coroner

Coroner

A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...

.