Exceptional, Chilling, Suspenseful, Romantic Fable Of Isolated Village Haunted By Monsters

Rating: 7/10 (24 January 2008)

The inhabitants of an isolated village live in constant fear of monsters which inhabit the surrounding woods and never leave. Ivy, a young blind woman, is in love with Lucius. But when he is stabbed by a rival for her affections, she requests that she leave the village to find medicines in the towns. Can she survive this perilous quest and save Lucius ?
I love the timeless quality of Shyamalan's movies; he completely ignores current fashions and as a result his work is the polar opposite of everybody else stylistically. He makes horror movies so they should be full of screaming teens, CGI effects and rock music, but thankfully they're not. This film was made in 2004, but it could have been made in 1954 and it will still be as good in 2054. It eschews cheap thrills and overblown visuals for subtlety, understatement and atmosphere, and is simply brilliant. The scene where Lucius walks a few feet into the woods to pick a berry typifies Shyamalan's genius; it's riveting, scary and exciting, but is all done with one shot, suggestion, sound effects and music. Did we see a monster there ? What happened ? Delicious. The movie takes its time to build the characters so that we know the people and the place intimately when the tension starts to crank up, but at the same time it's constantly teasing us with diversions and hidden meanings, leaving us nervously unsure what to believe. The protagonists of the movie may be archetypes - star-crossed lovers, Village Elder and Village Idiot - but the plot and the people are never conventional; the heroine is blind, the hero gets laid low halfway through, we're never really sure (until the end) whether or not the monsters exist and we make incorrect assumptions about when it's set. The four leads are excellent, notably young Howard in the physically demanding and emotionally complex role of Ivy, with a first-rate larger ensemble. As always in a good horror film, photography and music are crucially important, and this is an exercise in how to do it right. Roger Deakins uses classic techniques to both show and hide the creatures and the whole movie somehow looks as if it was lit naturally (imperative to the story), while James Newton Howard's music quietly growls and scares the pants off us. Shot in lovely lonely locations in rural Pennsylvania, it also features fine costumes by veteran designer Ann Roth. Exceptionally well written, produced and directed by the gifted Shyamalan (who plays the security guard reading a paper), one of the few young directors working who brings real depth, storytelling prowess and classical style to his work and isn't just the usual MTV airhead. Long may he continue to make such breathtaking and entertaining films.