When is a horror movie not a horror movie?

Rating: Null/10 (31 July 2004)

When M.Night Shamaylan is at the helm!! This film reminds me of classic 80's promotion, where a movie is advertised as something which it is NOT!! During the hey-day of B-cinema many films came out that were marketed as horror and ultimately were not. This film used that technique to fill the seats. The film "Funeral Home" comes to mind, marketed as a zombie movie, when it was actually a "Psycho" inspired thriller. Only with this film the movie is NOT EVEN CLOSE to what is shown in previews. Maybe I would have appreciated it more, if I was not tricked into thinking it was horror. It is obvious by the marketing technique that horror is still a profitable genre, so why is Hollywood not releasing any horror movies in 2004? So far "Dawn Of the Dead" has been the ONLY horror release to date (August 1st) and the new "Exorsist" is on the way. Give the audience that went to see "The Village", what they really want, an authentic horror movie. Not a lame attempt at social commentary disguised as a monster movie. Technically the movie looks great, the acting is solid too, but the script and writing is awful, uninspiring and for the horror movie fan you will be inspired to say "WHAT A WASTE OF TIME". Sorry this director, can not hold a candle to any of the great genre film makers. The movie is not suspenseful at all, the big "twist" is a let down, and the social commentary is very elementary, and nothing slightly thought provoking. If you actually think M.Night Shamaylan and the word brilliant belong in the same sentence, you have not seen too many quality films. After such a promising year (2003) of good horror movies such as "Wrong Turn", "Identity", "Texas Chainsaw 2003", "House Of 1000 Corpses" and others; this year has been a huge letdown for the horror movie fan. This film, is the biggest letdown in the slowest year ever for theatrical horror movies. Judging by the previews I honestly thought Shamaylan set out to make an authentic genre film, boy was I wrong.