Shyamalan's Fourth Installment of Terror!

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2005)

Review (if you haven't seen the film): All I can tell you about M. Night Shamalyadingdong's (I mean Shyamalan's) new film The Village, is it's better than The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, but not quite as genius as his last movie Signs. In closing this short review all I could tell you is the film (along with Manchurian Candidate) deserved somewhere between 4 and 4 ½ stars, but I gave it the lower number instead because their is always room for improvement. And that's about all I'm going to tell you. Honestly if I reveal anymore it will ruin the tremendous experience for you. You should go into it knowing nothing, I did.
IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT DON'T READ ANY FURTHER
I found The Village to be the most unexpected thing you'd find of the master of terror M. Night Shyamalan. Although it doesn't attract it's viewers with spine-tingling thrills like M. Night's last installment of fright "Signs", it attracts viewers because the character development and emotions are just so dang interesting. Also what reels viewers in is the mystery of it all. Why were these settlers here? Who were this pig-like monkey men in the woods? And why the hell didn't they try to hunt them. All this keeps the audience glued to the screen as long as the film in the projection booth is running.
THE SET-UP
I found the set-up of the settlers in the woods quite interesting. I felt the whole idea about the first settlers their being known as "elders" who make all the decisions about the colony's future, kind of borrowed a little bit from other things, but it was still pretty intriguing to watch. I liked most of the characters, especially Joaquin Phoenix's character Lucius. Lucius is kind of like the opposite of the character Phoenix played in Signs, Merril Hess. Lucius is the Arnold Schwarzwenegger of the film, you know the fearless hero, well until he gets stabbed. I loved newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard's character, although she was blind she was still the toughest female in the Village, and in a way she was the hero of the films. Adrien Brody's character Noah Percy, was extremely creepy, while William Hurt's character wasn't very creepy but very god-like (in a way in which he called the shots). Sigourney Weaver's character was very short-lived and simple, she was a lonely single parent desperate for security which only could be provided by a man.
THE CHILLS
I didn't find that the film scared me at all. It only creeped me out once. The part where they first show the "creature" up close and personal. That would make for one hell of a Halloween costume.
THE WAY IT WAS SHOT
I loved the camera work in this. LOVED IT. Nice camera tricks, gave a lot of depth to the film (although it really didn't need it, it was a very nice add-on). M. Night Shyamalan showcases his numerous talents once again in this film.
THE ACTING
I thought The Village contained many great performances in it. Joaquin Phoenix was great as always, and Sigourney Weaver did a fine job (as usual). William Hurt gave an undeniably great performance, and I was quite impressed with newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard (Ron Howard's daughter). However, the real stand-out of the movie was Academy Award Winning Adrien Brody as Noah Percy. He plays his character with such passion and depth it's hard to resist the notion of him getting another Oscar nomination this year. I've seen many people play mentally handicapped individuals (some good, some bad, some great, some horrible), and Adrien Brody's one is up their with Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man and Sean Penn in I Am Sam. He also adds a creepy and violently disturbed dimension to his characters that terrified me while viewing, yet attracted me to know much more about his character.
THE WAY IT ENDED
I thought the ending was the most clever part of the movie. To end it with the monsters really being real, would have been lazy, and common. But how they had it just being a hoax so that William Hurt could have everyone afraid to leave out into the real modern world (because he was a part of a support group) was BRILLIANT! How he paid for planes not to fly over the area was just ingenious. The best part was when Bryce Dallas Howard's character gets to the outside world, and it's modern day! How great is that! It felt like the ending of a great Twilight Zone episode. A two hour Twilight Zone episode.
In closing to the review, I thought the ending showed that M. Night Shyamalan could make great suspense stories, even if it wasn't supernatural. He showed a whole new side of his work in this, and showed he could be versatile. The critics slammed it because whenever we go into a film by M. Night Shyamalan we expect supernatural stuff to take place. Well, from now on, don't. So before I leave you, I'd like to say  it's way more easy to make a film about monsters, then it is to make a film about people posing to be monsters to keep people restrained from the real world. M. Night caught us off guard in this flick, and I liked that. (review written 7/31/04) Grade: B+ (screened at Harkins Arizona Mills 24, Tempe, Arizona)
MADE MY TOP 300 LIST AT #239: (The 23rd Best Film of 2004)