Terrible. Absolutely terrible.

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 2004)

Here's the deal. The movie has a twist (shocker!) halfway through that negates the whole movie, and renders the second half of the film utterly pointless and ineffective.
And the final twist is so goofy, and so unbelievable, and so stupid, that it just left me angry. M Night Shamalamadingdong needs to stop watching old twilight episodes.
SPOILER AHEAD... Don't READ IF YOU Don't WANT IT RUINED FOR YOU...
Its hard to explain why i hated this movie, without properly explaining the plot and the twists. Here it is, for those of you who don't plan on seeing it. ...
A 19th century village of puritan types live in fear of the creatures in the forest. the creatures in the forest wear and are attracted to red, (the bad color) and are repelled by yellow (the good color). maybe its being a New Yorker, where the terror alert is being raised from yellow to red on a weekly basis, but i saw through this thinly veiled metaphor from the getgo.
Anyway, the entire first half of the movie, M Night Salami teases us with creatures in the woods. Finally, at a crucial halfway point, a blind girl must spend the second half of the movie traveling through the woods to get medicine for her ailing boyfriend.
OK, now things should get going, right? WRONG! because just as she goes into the woods, M Night Shamalammayomamma reveals to us that there are no creatures in the woods, and its a farce put on by the elders to instill fear in the hearts of the citizens, and keep them from venturing outside the town (more post 9-11 metaphors...)
I appreciated the effort, to disguise a horror film as social commentary, but the movie tips its hand too early, and it sabotages the movie. The scenes in the woods are now pointless, and not in the least bit scary. Even when one of the creatures shows up, we know its only going to turn out to be a puritan in costume.
But the real stinkbomb doesn't get dropped until the final few minutes, where we find out the puritans are actually living in a modern-day wildlife preserve, thus revealing the reasons for the elders not wanted their citizens crossing the woods... they might find internet porn!