What a waste of quite an interesting idea

Rating: 6/10 (13 September 2004)

Sorry to say so, but this is - in my opinion - really a waste of an idea. And quite astonishingly so, with the director and writer being M. Night Shyamalan. Maybe his debut with "The Sixth Sense" spoiled my expectations. But that debut was just amazingly great, and the follow-ups can't seem to keep up with that initial excitement.
Possible spoiler ahead!
The idea to the story at first sounds quite promising. Monsters surrounding a probably 19th century village, forcing its population to stay where it is - the village in a clearance in the woods. However, the way it is performed is - quite frankly - a bit boring and silly. Showing one of the monsters (although blurry) really really spoiled an almost breath-taking moment. Mr. Shyamalan is known for that special final surprise at the end of the movie, which no one expects. But this movie is far to obvious. The two "truths" to be found are much to easy to detect before they are solved by the director. Knowing about the monsters and having a little bit of Hollywood-type imagination almost inevitably leads to correctly guessing at the final outcome. Trying to imitate Mr. Stephen King by having a guest appearance doesn't help the cause.
End of possible spoiler
This could have been much more enjoyable, I think. Too bad it wasn't.