M. Night Shyamalan's redeemed himself with a fresh new take on filmaking

Rating: 9/10 (20 June 2008)

After lady in the water making you not care about his characters and the village with too much of a twist but still scaring you. M. Night Shyamalan has redeemed himself with a real look into the human psyche, instead of actors pretending.
The airborne pathogen inducing people to lose their sense of self preservation and consequently kill themselves, while it is invisible and not a huge beautiful special effect monster, it is still one of the scariest things that could be possibly put into a movie and seem realistic. After all, the whole "scary murderer, ghost, vampire" Thing has ceased to scare people.
I greatly admire this leap of faith that Shyamalan risked in order to create this film. That risk was simply a new approach to directing actors.
Actors nowadays are judged by their ability to display emotion, instead of the realism of their performances, this film however puts people in a very real threat situation and they react... well, like people, not actors. If you haven't seen the film yet, go into it thinking how would you react in certain situations, such as when Elliot, Alma and Jess meet the crazy old hermit and she accuses Elliot of attempting to steal her things He responds exactly like any person would.
Defensive, confused and abashed. While at the moment of the scene being played off it seems a little corny, in retrospect I was struck by the pure genius of such a reaction.
Though the movie lacked special effects, it was not lacking in fear and rather realistic gore which, at times (if you aren't too big on gore like I am) is a bit too much, someone turning on a lawn mower and having it run over them, or jumping into a lion exhibit at the zoo in order to kill oneself is not exactly something I needed to see, but it instilled fear, which i'm sure was the intension.
Overall, it was fabulous, if you aren't big on horror movies, this is the most clever and terrifying film without being corny and full of unreal occurrences. I loved being scared, and actually left the theater to blowing around tree's and strange mist (Mist doesn't happen in New Mexico) and i was actually afraid of the toxin for a split second.