Exceptionally literate psychological drama, with intricate threads interwoven in compact yet complex plot...

Rating: 6/10 (6 December 2008)

M. Night Shyamalan wrote, co-produced, and directed this deceptively simple whirlpool of deceit and consequence. This is the kind of human study (with a suspenseful undercurrent) that might have become legendary as a paperback novel, a swift read on a rainy Saturday afternoon. An isolated East Coast community in the late 1890s, apparently made up of simple farmers and their families, have made a pact with the ominous creatures who live in the forest which borders their hamlet: do not cross into their territory, do not offend the creatures with the color red, feed them raw meat for supper, and be thankful for every day they've had without upsetting Those They Dare Not Speak Of. After a backwards villager has stabbed an innocent young man on the verge of getting married, his intended (a wise but blind lass) asks permission to travel through the woods to find medicine in the neighboring town. Shyamalan always runs the risk of upsetting his own core audience by not coming up with amazing-enough answers to his own circumstances. The scenario here is fully dimensional, the narrative is absorbing and intriguing, and all the players are wonderful...yet, Shyamalan is perhaps too logical in his storytelling (and too methodical in his approach) to satisfy a thriller audience with this story (in the end, it isn't audacious enough). On the other hand--purely as a psychological study--the movie has layers of complexity that seem even deeper in retrospect, and the dialogue is so well-written and delivered it nearly doesn't matter that the scare factor is all a sham. **1/2 from ****