Incredibly slow paced and ineffective film

Rating: Null/10 (26 September 2004)

It's hard to know what genre "The Village" would fall into. The previews I've seen are incredibly misleading giving the impression of a psychological horror rather than a blood and gore slasher movie. As it turns out, "The Village" is neither. I like M.Night Shyamalan's films usually. "The sixth sense" was a classic and "Signs" was pretty good (wasn't keen on "Unbreakable" though) but for me, "The Village" had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The dialogue seemed sparse and William Hurt's character in particular spoke so slowly at times that I wanted to shake him. Whilst the cinematography was good and the music score was affective in creating an atmosphere this was not enough to save this film for me. I jumped just once during the entire movie and that was only because the music suddenly came on so loud that it almost blew me out of my seat! I really disliked this film and felt no bond or empathy towards any of the characters. I find it hard to understand the people who say that the film worked for them just because the music score was good or the camera shots were interesting. surely the fundamental reason for going to the cinema is to be entertained? Unfortunately, "The Village" left me feeling the complete opposite.