One of the best films I ever watched...

Rating: 10/10 (3 February 2005)

I think this director has true skill, a well crafted movie. Basically a medieval romance is made out of a 'Mennonite' community who makes a sheltered utopian society and create a 19th century community. In order to protect this community - creatures are invented to scare the people from venturing out. The beginning of the movie draws you into the characters and attempts to bring you into their world. As other posts have suggested, it is like a Twilight Zone flick, or an "Outer Limits' episode on film.
The medieval elements of romantic literature are all there, mythical creatures, magic potions, wooded forests, costumes, love triangles, and I think the director has done remarkably well taking a Twilight Zone movie and climaxing it with a romantic twist - like a Medivil romantic folk tale.
I rate his movie highly because it has kept my attention straight from beginning to end. At the start, you know about the community, and you are drawn into the fable of the mythical creatures, and you are in suspense to find out who they are, and what their role is going to be on the movie. The love triangle and romantic elements start playing out on the movie - and love wins in the end.
The theme of being in the 'woods' is something that is also present in another movie: 'the house of flying daggers', where love triangles, and a conflict of characters involving romance is occurring in a wooded forest.