Old Fears Can Still Frighten

Rating: 8/10 (31 July 2004)

Kids find things and places that scare them, and dare each other to press the limits. Dive off the high board. Walk the rickety bridge. Go into the abandoned house after sunset. Most people are born with a natural fear of the unknown, and face those fears in different ways. Until any fear is broken, people's limits are contained within them. The inhabitants of `The Village' have an extra dose of fear from the elusive creatures that offer them sanctuary if they stay in the limited domain of their woodland Pennsylvanian town. From that set-up, M. Night Syamalan's makes his latest film create frightening monster chills without ever resorting to slasher-film gore.
The movie opens with the funeral of a child. Other than the deceased being young, there is nothing suspicious about the event, and it clearly establishes the facts of life in late 19th century rural Pennsylvania. Sounds that come from the woods surrounding the town bring looks of fear and haunted pauses in conversation about `Those We Do Not Speak Of'. To make certain that the truce to keep the worlds of the woods and village separate, watch towers and torches are a long-standing part of town life. The people of the town talk about the creatures in the most reserved of ways as life goes on. The elders (two of whom are played by William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver) help keep everything running as the young people fall in love and direct people to care for the mentally disabled Noah (Adrian Brody). Although it is Tabitha Walker (Jayne Atkinson) who declares the strength of her love for Lucius (Joaqin Phoenix), it is her blind sister, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) who captures his attention. The appearance of skinned animals along the border renews people's worries about the creatures, and the night they come into town leaves everyone quivering in storm cellars as the clawed and porcupine-quilled creatures pound on doors in apparent anger. Although Lucius presses the elders for permission to cross the woods to find new medicine and aids for town life, it is Ivy who must ultimately face the unknowns of the forest when misfortune befalls Lucius. What lies in and beyond the woods is what the townsfolk truly fear, and what Shyamalan has come to challenge the audience with.
There is currently no worthier heir to Hitchcock than Shyamalan. Right down to the cameo appearance, he follows the Master of Suspense's tradition in toying with the audience's expectations and primal urges to create unique experiences within his movies. He also leaves plenty of clues to the film's secrets out in the open for those who are observant enough and who keep and open mind. Not every big name associated with the picture has a pivotal moment to play up, and it works to the benefit of the movie. The A-list heavies who are here have come to be a part of a story, and not to simply give easily anticipated one-liners. Roger Deakins continues his fine career of cinematography working to reveal only what is necessary. His images are beautiful, but also use light to increase the sense of a limited world. Things are never starkly sunny, and a haze is maintained over everything. The pre-dawn conversation between Lucius and Ivy is a scene of quiet intensity created by the symmetry of their subtly highlighted faces. Only at night are the shadows sharp and crisp by torchlight. The score is a Hollywood one to be certain, but it too is not overdone. And to achieve that, James Newton Howard pairs down the music to meet the size of the situation. When the music helps a scare, it only reinforces the moment. The music alone doesn't make you jump, your anticipation does.
Many Hollywood films approach the idea of horror with the intent of pure shock. They know that the audience has come expecting a particular kind of monster. Market research demands starting the scares early and bringing them often at the sacrifice of any real character beyond `jock', `nerd', `virgin' or `creep'. While `The Village' is largely accepted as a horror movie, it makes an attempt to challenge the notions of fear and courage while it scares. It is more of a drama with monsters than a traditional monster movie. This is more about the experience than the goal. Everyone went in droves to see kids get lost in the woods of `The Blair Witch Project' not because kids getting lost in the woods is an unusual occurrence, but because it was a film that successfully generated fear in the way campfire stories used to. Shyamalan is a storyteller who makes movies, and that is all he has set out to do here: tell a scary story, and do it intelligently.
A friend of mine who saw the film with me is betting on a dominating opening weekend with a massive drop-off in box office on the second weekend because the surprise at the end of the film doesn't mesh with exactly what audiences expect. M. Night Shyamalan will probably never again attain the hushed shock that swept over people at the end of `The Sixth Sense', which was a monumental achievement. He shouldn't need to repeat the exact feat with every one of his movies. He may be weaning us off of the need to be shocked in the same way with each progressive movie.
There are plenty of people already revealing the secret of the ending on message boards and chat rooms. The object of fear once it is revealed, much like an object of desire once it is attained, is never as great as what it appeared to be from a distance. The revealed truth, in fact, is cause for sadness. That does not make the challenge any less nor does it diminish the heroism of the people who faced the limits of what they thought they could do. The final fright is, could anyone in the audience have been any braver?
8 out of 10