IT'S OFFICIAL, FOLKS! "THE SIXTH SENSE" WAS A FLUKE!

Rating: Null/10 (8 August 2004)

Though not nearly as much of a disappointment as SIGNS, THE VILLAGE is M. Night Shyamalan's third disappointment in a row, beginning with UNBREAKABLE.
Whereas UNBREAKABLE was just boring, and the plotline of SIGNS had so many holes in it as to make it almost laughable, THE VILLAGE (just like SIGNS) starts off strong, but ends very weakly. So as not to spoil the movie for those who intend to see it no matter what, the completely illogical encounter between Bryce Howard's and Charlie Hofheimer's characters robs the film's "message" of whatever strength it might have possessed, a strength that might have been quite forceful had Shyamalan not written himself into a corner and threw in a slap-dash ending.
In horror/suspense films, there is a fine line between believability and idiocy. Shyamalan walked this line expertly with THE SIXTH SENSE but floundered pathetically with SIGNS. This latest venture only proves that THE SIXTH SENSE was a fluke - its expertly constructed suspense an anomaly in Shyamalan's repertoire - and that Shyamalan needs to take refresher courses on how to tell a believable story that is cohesive and does not rely on slap-dash endings to get the film to end in a ticket sales-friendly time frame.
Mr. Shyamalan's message came through loud and clear. However, for such a message to be couched in a stretch of a premise (and it is a bit of a stretch) with such an unsatisfactory ending is shameful. Admission to a movie is much too high for one to leave the theatre two or three hours later unentertained and, in some cases (depending on the type of film), unfulfilled.