Enjoyable Popcorn Pulp...

Rating: 7/10 (2 August 2004)

After being horribly bored watching Signs I really had no expectations regarding M.Knight's latest project, The Village. I attended with my 13 yr old cousin who is over 20 years younger than me. We go to all the pg-13 & under fright flicks that we can as my wife and toddler daughter aren't big fans of horror/supernatural films. When I saw the advance press for The Village I knew I'd soon be a part of it's audience once it hit town. After watching the film yesterday, I felt pretty satisfied that Signs wasn't the best example to judge MK's creative potential by.... a sophomoric slump of sorts perhaps, but probably nothing more.
The Village was a throwback to the creature-feature matinees I used to enjoy as a kid on Saturday afternoons once the cartoons had stopped running for the day. I suppose if I had gone into the movie trying to guess ahead of time what the 'twist' was going to be that I could have figured it out ahead of time but why try and ruin the whole experience for myself? That just sounds plain dumb.
MK is no Stanley Kubrick but I don't think that bothers Shyamalan much anyway. He is a modern master of sustaining suspense without resorting to exploitative gore or obscenity just because it's titillating. If I had anything to suggest about his next movie it would be to drop the 'twist' gig if for any reason just to mock the folks that spend their hard-earned money to tear apart every film's plot as some sort of pseudo-intellectual hobby.
Aside from the haters, anybody who appreciates character studies and high-quality acting will enjoy The Village for a multitude of reasons. Hurt, Brody, Phoenix, and Howard are brilliant. No goofy cameos or anything, just solid performances from a variety of academy award caliber actors. The dialogue and sets were flawless and engaging and ultimately, a lot of fun. A great film for a rainy Sunday, a large tub of popcorn and a few hours of scary fun.