A load of preposterous nonsense

Rating: 4/10 (20 December 2014)

The Village is where it all started to go downhill from M Night Shyamalan. OK, so it was perhaps mismarkted as a flat out horror movie and it's not as bad as The Happening or The Last Airbender, but it's certainly not a good movie. An isolated 19th century village is being disturbed by the creatures in the surrounding forest. Part horror film, part love story, this is, in a nutshell, the Sunshine of horror films. Sunshine had a good first two thirds, before a misjudged twist sent it down the toilet. The difference here is that before the twist, the film wasn't good. Actors doing their best stoner impressions and speaking awkwardly bad dialogue isn't my definition of good. The story is sort of interesting, but it's too slow and creaks along at an overly leisurely pace. 2 dumb twists bombard audiences and undo what little tension there was before hand. This film suffered from misleading marketing, but it's Shyamalan's fault at well. He can do so much better than that lame script!
People forget that none of Shyamalan's twists make sense. Bruce Willis would have realized something was up since no-one ever spoke to him, the way Samuel L Jackson found Bruce Willis didn't make any sense, and why would intelligent aliens who are susceptible to water go to a planet which is 75% water? However, the twist that the village is set in the present day is just ridiculous. How has no-one found the village? Surely a plane will have passed over at some point? The plot in general is nonsensical. I knew the twist already, but it was still a jarring tonal shift. The Village benefits from some interesting social commentary and Roger Deakins' beautiful cinematography, as well as a couple of the subtle, clever thrills which are the reason I like Shyamalan's earlier films. Still, TV never takes off, and from its opening it's just annoying and poorly written. This one is just silly, and in terms of logic there's no saving it.
4/10