Question + comments + sylvanian thoughts.. spoilers

Rating: Null/10 (30 July 2004)

I just came back from seeing this interesting little morality play that was good, but misguided and narratively disjointed.
I understand all points of the story and the farce thing, but I don't understand or might have missed one thing:
Where did the villagers come from?
I thought at first that the elders had sheltered them away in this false place, procreated and raised them to believe in this only world that they know -- is this true? Was it mentioned?
One a sidenote, I like the way Shyamalan sets up the premise as classic Gothic story and veers it towards a re-reading of the "Plato's Cave" (those who see shadows on the wall believe that the shadows only exist and that they are real!).
But I don't like the way the movie is being marketed and advertised... very falsely -- more false than the farce of the premise. Disney is promoting this as first and foremost a M. Night Shyamalan flick with an eerie and scary premise. Wrong. Expectations are bound to be crushed and over-hype is inevitable. The Sixth Sense is like a ghost that will constantly challenge and haunt M. Night -- will he ever live up to that expectation? Will his movies be judged solely on their own, rather than as a comparative watershed to his first mainstream movie?
Enjoy analyzing.