Contrived boring drek (*spoilers*)

Rating: 2/10 (14 August 2004)

This film is some of the most contrived boring drek to hit the screen in years. It is unbelievably simple minded. The mood is set by hushed voices who constantly speak of "those of whom we do not speak." The premise is that some dodo brains with lots of money establish a village in a remote reserve to escape the horrors of modern life (all of the elders lost loved ones to violence). So what's the plan: Let's pretend we live in the 19th century by scaring the holy shit out of our children by telling them there are monsters in the woods, keeping them barefoot and ignorant about the world and depriving them of basic necessities like medicine so they die before we have an overpopulation problem on our hands.
Of course, somehow the elders who isolate everyone have somehow allowed it to leak out that there is a town on the other side of the woods where there is medicine. Why their hostages ever need to know that, I don't know.
As the years pass, none of dimwitted kids ever figure out that the "monsters" are really pig bones in red jump suits. In the end, it is disclosed that the only person in the whole village who is not in on the scam, but figures it out is the homicidal raving lunatic who impulsively stabs the fiancé of the girl he seems to want for himself. We are supposed to believe that this guy who stabs the fiancé something like 4314214432 times (but doesn't quit kill him), then wanders around soaked in blood until he gets "confined" to a room with a window (from which he of course later escapes to make more trouble) is capable of keeping the monsters secret and pretending to be one without giving himself away in the process. THIS IS JUST STUPID!! The bad news is that this isn't the most stupid part. It's just the part I'm still laughing at so I thought I would mention it.
This movie is definitely to be avoided.
It is not scary.
It is not intellectual.
It is contrived, boring drek.
I gave it 2 out of 10, but only because I accidentally missed the 1 when I poked at it.