THE VILLAGE

M Night Shyamalan has come in for a lot of stick recently. The Lady in the Water, The Happening and recently The Last Airbender have all been absolutely canned by reviewers. I've personally not seen any of the these films but I loved the Sixth Sense and Unbreakable was, in my opinion, even better, so he clearly has talent.

I recently came back from holiday and fancied watching the Ryder Cup on the Monday so I ordered the Sport channels. The Sky Movies package didn't cost much more so I took the plunge and that night I saw on Sky Sci-Fi/Horror The Village - Shyalaman's 4th film (After Signs, that I also have yet to see).



As I settled down to watch it I remembered seeing a trailer for this film at the cinema (can't remember what film I was actually there to watch) and I recalled excitement at seeing the trailer. It seemed scary, mysterious and it was directed by the man who brought us two cracking films. What was there not to like?

It's the story of an idyllic, isolated village, seemingly at some stage in the past, that is surrounded by a mysterious wood. This forest contains creatures that the villagers hold a truce with, the creatures do not bother the villagers if the villagers do not enter the woods. Once the scene is set these rules are gradually broken and when a tragedy hits one half of a loving couple in the village, a blind girl begs to be allowed to travel to one of the 'towns' to get help, but this means going travelling through the woods.

Its got a brilliant cast, any film that can boast Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Adrien Brody, and Joaquin Pheonix has to be on to something. Perhaps this roster is a sign of how high Shyalaman's stock was in Hollywood at this time. All of the names above do a superb job, it's a wonderfully acted film and they seem to really enjoy hamming it up with 'olde' language. There's a sufficient range of emotions for them all to go through, there's tears, good humour and naturally a bit of terror. The main protagonist though is, Hunter Bryce Dallas and she is the best thing about the film. She plays a young blind woman on a quest to save her fiancé from death. She had a small part in Spiderman 3 but I suspect we will get to see a lot more of her. Although the beginning of her quest is the start of some fine acting, it also is the moment that the film has a wobble and loses it's momentum. Until that point I felt as though I was there and did believe in the characters and the world, but once she set off I must admit I got a little bored. We've all been there, it was the moment that I realised that the film was perhaps too long and we were entering a portion of the story that didn't need to be there, or if it did, it was to the detriment of the story.

It picks up again though and grabbed hold of me and took me through to the conclusion with a nice little twist. On second thoughts, not a twist, more of a reveal.

The now trademark Shylaman curveball ending, in this case, is satisfying and surprising. I confess that it didn't get me quite as the Sixth Sense did and it wasn't quite as enjoyable as that at the end of Unbreakable, but I didn't see it coming and it added something appealing to the film. Beyond that there was an open-ended final shot which I also enjoyed and refused to be sucked into a closure that would have made the film too neat and tidy. It also gave the film a deeper under-current where is became clear that this film was about much more than just a load of monsters terrorising villagers, removing any worries that this was merely a cheap thrills B-movie.

On the point of monsters, it is worth mentioning the creatures in this film. This is very much a case of the thought and mystery of them being much worse than the beasts themselves. That is less to do with the skill of the direction, acting and story and more to do with them looking like a collection of long twigs under a red blanket. I'm not asking for something as iconic as Xenomorph, but please, lets have something that looks a little less laughable. The clip below might not be taken from the film but it's not far off.



All in all, I enjoyed and I'd probably watch it again. A creepy and intelligent film, with more depth than the trailer might suggest, it explores the issue of ruling a community through fear and also of the way modern society can infect 'old-fashioned' vaules. It just misses something as it nears it's conclusion so it becomes the beginning of the dip in form for the director, but there was plenty to appreciate. I have every faith that Shyalaman's next film will be good. Won't it?