Simple On One Level, Complex And Thought Provoking On Another

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2005)

Having just watched The Village on DVD I found it to be a good movie beautifully shot and scored. On the surface the plot is extremely simple, a tight knit community living in a village surrounded by woods containing evil creatures. Underneath the plot is about how far people will go to prevent themselves and others from experiencing painful moments in life. Rather than risk repeating what others have already written, I thought I'd just add the following.
Two points made by the director in the bonus material on the DVD stood out for me.
Firstly, when making the movie there was a point when it was really scary, but a decision was made two thirds through the scoring process to go for emotion and make it a romance. Although the movie does have a number of jump points that are fairly scary, it is essentially a love story. People expecting a horror flick are likely to be disappointed.
Secondly, when the original creatures were scaled up in size from being models, they just didn't move in a realistic fashion or have the desired affect. Consequently the design was changed which to me resulted in creatures that were too similar in proportion to the villagers. This made me wonder why two or three of the more able villagers couldn't just see the creatures off with shovels or any other implements readily available.
The odd niggle aside though, I found it to be an enjoyable and enchanting film containing the director's trademark plot twists. I'd give it 8/10.