Not the bad movie people make it out to be, but I can understand why they are disappointed

Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2005)

there may be spoilers up ahead, but I'll try to steer away from them:
I am one of those that appreciate "the village" When I started to watch the movie I'd expected a see a second "Signs" (which was by it's ridiculous "man-in-a-suit" ending a bit disappointing after the tension had been so brilliantly built up)
What I noticed right away was the beautiful cinematography which excels in subtlety. The same can be said about the acting. Greatly scored as well.
Again it had subtle and brilliant built up of tension. Shymalan's trademark. Was it to be a standard Shymalan movie *****sort-of-spoiler:*****
Then at a third of the movie it had a man in a suit moment
Because of the acting, the cinematography I decided to continue watching. Shymalan takes a lot of time introducing his characters, which makes them 3D persons and give the actors the chance to give it their best. It also makes you -the viewer- want to see what happens to them next.
Then the creatures show up again -again my man-in-a-suit-fear became true, was this to be the real horror of this movie?
I felt disappointed -this is not the horror thriller I thought it was.
But then there was this moment -all but silence save the score..."Howard holds out her hand while the creature runs towards her, and Phoenix grabs it and they go foe the trapdoor to the cellar almost like a couple of ballerina's -reminescent of Chinese movies like "Crouching Tiger" or "House of the Flying Daggers"
In all the events following it started to dawn: this movie isn't the horror-thriller I'd expected but a well played =well directed -well scored -well written drama-thriller.
So the more plot becomes clear the more you understand this transformation from apparently horror to psycho-drama-thriller. Though I felt the clue was not entirely unexpected and a bit unbelievable, I was fascinated.
It is in my opinion people think it a bad movie since they expected a horror-thriller and got a psychological-drama-thriller.
So all-in-all I think it's a great movie that disappoints due to expectations that were falsely raised by a misleading PR campaign.
So if you watch this movie with either NO expectations or with the knowledge it's a psychological-thriller-drama you're in for a wonderfully cinematographically styled , ingeniously scored and brilliantly acted show!
Have fun!