one of the point of Shyamalan's movies

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2004)

One of the point in many of the Shyamalan's movies is the clues that he leaves in the movie -- that often go unnoticed the first time, so that one can watch it the 2nd time and 3rd time to see the consistency of the clues with the so called 'twist' endings.
SPOILER AHEAD
In this movie from the very beginning there is a mention of towns outside the village. I don't think it is a big deal what year it is. The mystery to me was who the 'creatures' are and who is doing the bad things. I had an inkling that it had something to do with the William Hurt character; but I did not quite figure out the whole thing beforehand. After the truth is told to Ivy, and she is attacked in the forest, I started thinking may be there are real creatures. I did not catch that twist at all. My wife thought Ivy was imagining.
I plan to watch it at least one more time to figure what what clues Shyamalan left in regards to who the creature is. Based on the comments on this board, I will be looking for missing people and any such clues. I think that would be fun.
Also, I think many reviewer's do not give good reviews to Shyamalan's movies because (i) They are used to watching movies once, and Shyamalan wants his audience to watch his movies at least twice to appreciate the clues and hints he meticulously puts in a consistent manner, (ii) Shyamalan does not suck up to these reviewers; he lives in Phily (not in Hollywood), and (iii) Many of the reviewer's think how dare he write, direct and produce his movies. They think Shyamalan has a big ego. ... How dare he be different?