How NOT To Make A Movie

Rating: Null/10 (14 August 2004)

What made this movie even more disappointing was the fact that I hold M. Night Shamaylan in such high regard as a director and writer. What I think was the key of this disappointment was that I think he knew that. Night knows people hold him in high regard, and took himself entirely too seriously. For one thing, what the movie reminded me of was all the things I believed I would always want to do in a movie, and he gave me a good lesson in why those are terrible ideas.
SPOILER ALERT! The first thing I thought would be cool was (1.) Kill off the main character. This was the only good twists and only nice surprises in the picture. Switching off the importance from Lucius to Ivy was a better idea, yet a less exciting idea. This automatically takes away all of the suspense. This also unravels the plot in a very sloppy way. Night unravels the foreshadowing in a more "HEY! LOOK AT THIS! IT'S VITAL TO THE PLOT" manner. That's awful directing. (2.) Create an unreal threat, a farce. This was a turn for the worst. I knew, as soon as I found out the creatures were fake, that this movie was going to be a complete bust. At this point, you have completely eliminated the conflict, the scare factor. The audience has figured out at this point that this is no suspense/thriller, and they're pissed. But yet, they paid $5.50 for this show (it was the first show of the day), so they stay for the rest. Yet this badly drawn twist totally takes out the knees of the final surprise. (3.) Turn the world completely upside down on the audience. BIG MISTAKE! This might have been a better idea had the previous twist not been such a let down, but such was not the case. By the time Ivy had leaped over the wall and "flashback voices" were going on about their terrible occurrences, I had already seen this "surprise" coming a mile away. It was just as Ivy was led by her father into the shed housing fake "Those We Don't Speak Of" costumes, I knew that a. the creatures were fake, b. there has to be a reason for fake creatures, c. they don't want people going in the woods, d. something is on the other side of the woods, e. the "real world" is on the other side. It became so obvious as I saw how ridiculous these "deterrant rituals" were (ie. just because the color red attracts them, doesn't mean that the color yellow deters them).
All in all, in my book, this movie is a failure. Even as the twists continuously fail, the movie turns out to be anti-climatic anyhow. The only thing I was impressed with was how Night turned up (This was also another HUGE hint to the movie's "secret"; Night cameos in his films, in Hitchcockian fashion, and a dark skinned man of Asian decent has no place in a 19th century village, duh.), and that was no huge feat. The score, although incredibly composed and performed, was terribly executed, and I found it obnoxiously annoying at times when it just wasn't needed, or was out of place. Both "Unbreakable" and "Signs" were incredible, and I personally feel that this movie was M. Night Shamaylan's "Bad Movie" (every great director has one or two). Maybe in a few years, he will stun us with another masterpiece, but I can honestly say "The Village" was the worst and most disappointing movie I've seen at the theater since "The Matrix Revolutions" and that is saying A LOT.