Written/ Directed by M Night Shyamalan| Horror | Drama Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson, Cherry Jones, Judy Greer, and Celia Weston
Summery – The Village. A horror/thriller about a 19th century village surrounded by woodland, which hides mysterious creatures, or so it makes you think…. I must admit that the television advertisements did not attract me to this film. The adverts in my opinion made the film look like your typical “monster – don’t go into the woods” storyline. How wrong I was!
The reason I went to see this film is because I knew that it was directed by the same man that directed ‘Signs’. If you have seen signs you will know (depending on if you like this kind of film) that it leaves you thinking about the hidden meaning behind the ‘stereotypical’ plot. Signs in my opinion is not an alien film but something much deeper. M Night Shyamalan is also the person that directed ‘The Sixth Sense’, again another ‘thinking’ film.
The Storyline
Well, not too sure to be honest. Initially you are lead to believe that a small community is haunted by unknown creatures
from the woods. Any indication that the ‘creatures’ were on their way to the village resulted in the community locking themselves away in their houses, and hiding everything that was considered to be the ‘bad colour’ – (red). The villagers were also restricted to living in their own little village with no contact with other towns, as the towns were at the other side of the woods, which of course the villagers are banned from going anywhere near.
Like most films there is a ‘love’ element, which leads to conflict. Village man Lucius Hunt falls for a young woman who is blind. When she returns his love it leads to him being stabbed by her long term admirer – resulting in her wanting to go through the woods to the town at the other side of them to get some medicine.
This is just one of the points in the film that leads you to believe that all is not as it seems. Various people, including Lucius himself had asked the towns ‘mayor’ if they could go through the woods to the local town. Of course they were all refused permission. The blind woman however gets the approval, providing that the other villagers who are guiding her leave her side when she gets to ‘the hidden road’. T he point of this is that she was specially chosen for the journey for a reason…..
If you don’t want the film spoiling DON’T READ ON
The overview of the storyline is that the ‘leaders’ of the village have attempted to make sure that the villagers are cut off from the outside world, that they remain ‘innocent’, away from violence, crime and civilisation. A few powerful members of the village invented the creatures of the woods to scare the villagers into thinking they would be killed if they left the village. Consequently the villagers have no idea that the rest of the outside world are not living ‘simple lives’.
Now that I have seen the film I can pick out numerous little ‘snippets’ that are given to you as clues. One of them being the term ‘dumpster’ being used in the earlier part of the film when the village looks as though it hasn’t seen so much as a clean bucket of water never mind a dumpster.
I thought that this film was excellent. As with his other films you spend the first hour thinking of one storyline. The next half hour leaves you totally confused and your brain screaming for clarity. The film is very cleverly done and when the film has finished it leaves you wanting to kick yourself for not realising earlier that it wasn’t your typical horror film. The plot is clever and interesting, and although some parts are quite unbelievable you don’t get to a point where you think ‘what a load of……’
I wouldn’t really class this film as a horror and if you’re worried about seeing it because you don’t like ‘spooky’ film don’t panic, you will like it trust me
Conclusion
A very clever film, which has got more twists and turns than spaghetti junction. It is slow in parts but the end will leave you that irritated that it hasn’t explained itself you will have forgotten about the slow parts.
Extra's
I have found some 'slipups' from the film which you may find interesting. Please note I did not unfortunately notice these myself, but they are taken from the site 'Slipups.com'.
"In the scene when Ivy (the blind one) is runing through the forest at the end of the movie, she ends up runnig into a wall. If you look at the wall after she runs into it, it bounces. Then, at the scene when she is over the wall, it is a wooden fence. A wooden fence would not bounce like that. It Had to be a fake wall that she ran into. I understand that they didn't want to hurt her by having her run into a wall, but they could of at least caught the wall bouncing back and forth. It was quite funny."
One more....
"In the scene near the end of the film, when Ivy is going through the woods to the towns, she falls into the big hole. She is walking straight, facing the hole, but when she falls, she is turned around, and now she is hanging onto the side of the hole, facine the OPPOSITE direction of which she fell!!"
A definite thinker, but not for those of you who want a good scare.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2002 - Horror - Director: Danny Boyle - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Cillian Murphy, Megan Burns, Noah Huntley, Christopher Eccleston, Marvin Campbell, Brendan Gleeson
Production Year: 1984 - Horror - Director: Joe Dante - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday, Frances Lee McCain, Judge Reinhold, Corey Feldman
I saw this last week and found it quite hard to follow, could be because I was chatting to my friend the whole way through it - will be sure to give it a go again! Lucie xxx
Mipsie 14.02.2005 23:45
I didn't read on, lol, I want to see this without knowing the twists - it sounds good. Great review xx
Even when his trademark twist-ending formula wears worrisomely thin as it does inThe ... more
Village, M. Night Shyamalan is a true showman who knows how to serve up a spookfest. He's derailed this time by a howler of a "surprise" lifted almost directly from "A...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Even when his trademark twist-ending formula wears worrisomely thin as it does inThe ... more
Village, M. Night Shyamalan is a true showman who knows how to serve up a spookfest. He's derailed this time by a howler of a "surprise" lifted almost directly from "A...
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![The Village [DVD] [2004]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78514791.jpg "The Village [DVD] [2004]")
Oct 22nd, 2004
very helpful by (100%):
