Desperate Screams for a Story Editor

Rating: Null/10 (2 August 2004)

As we've come to expect from Shyamalan, the film excels at building a mood of low-key creepiness. There's weirdness afoot in the village of Covington Woods, with big scary porcupine-boar creatures roaming the woods where the townsfolk dare not tread.
Unfortunately, Shyamalan gets so caught up in mood that he forgets to build a logical story. The plot-holes in this one are big enough to drive the USS Nimitz and its whole freakin' battle group thru.
Shyamalan could have taken this movie two ways: the way he did with a couple minor tweaks to make it flow a whole lot better, or a slightly different way with one or two fewer twists but a story that hung together better. Too bad for him, and us, that he seems to have simply thrown a bunch of individually interesting and spooky ideas into a mish-mash of confusion.
I'm serious. A few minor changes would make this movie vastly more effective. As it is, you see the "big surprise" coming a mile away.
Kudos for some good acting and camera work, tho. It avoids the now-cliched "Blair Witch" rubbish of shaky hand-held camera work (tho it could easily have gone that way a couple time) and delivers splendid visuals.
Shyamalan's weakest effort so far. The guy is crying for a story editor who can smooth out his ideas and fill in the plot holes.