The Village A Period Drama Disguised As A Horror/Thriller

Rating: 4/10 (5 June 2009)

The Village is a period drama disguised as a horror/thriller from writer/director M Night Shyamalan whose other films haven't been nearly as good as his first one The Sixth Sense. M. Night shows talent and skill with the Village but unfortunately the bad outweighs the good in this one. The Village really isn't that bad but it could've been much better. The trailer to the film makes it seem like a thriller but I found The Vilage to be more of a period drama with some thriller elements. The movie does have some secrets that were surprising others weren't so much but surprises like spectacle alone doesn't make an entertaining film. The cast for the most part are believable in their roles of a small community of people who live in fear of the "creatures" that live in the woods surrounding their village. Joaquin Phoenix is admirable as Lucius the soft spoken man whose curious about the world outside of their village community. Phoenix however isn't in it that much considering his role gets cut rather short and for the remainder of the movie it focuses mainly on a female character played by newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard the daughter of famous director/actor Ron Howard. Bryce is quite good as Ivy a beautiful and determined blind young woman. She brings some life into the movie and without her I would've given it a lower rating that I did. Well done. Adrien Brody does an okay job as Noah the village idiot whose role like Phoenix is limited but he is convincing in the small part he plays in the film. The rest of the talented cast including William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleason, and Michael Pitt are very good in their roles but they (like Phoenix and Brody) also lack screen time. The few scares in the movie if you want to call them that are well executed but those scenes lack suspense and didn't frighten me at all. The creatures looked cool but like some of the characters in the film they aren't in it that much and don't pose as a real threat to the village people. The music by James Newton Howard is fitting for the tone of the film and the location they chose for the village was excellent. The ending was all right but it didn't make up for what already happened before in the movie. If M Night had improved on the scares making them more suspenseful and more frequent than The Village would've been a pretty good thriller. Overall the film is a flawed attempt at a thriller the lacked suspense but if you've enjoyed M. Night's other movies than you might like this as well.