THE VILLAGE THE FILM (The Village)

Member Name: pheobe_halliwell

Product:	The Village
Date:	18/09/04 (467 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good thinker

Disadvantages: slow in parts

Film Review – The Village

Written/ Directed by M Night Shyamalan| Horror | Drama
Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson, Cherry Jones, Judy Greer, and Celia Weston

Summery – The Village. A horror/thriller about a 19th century village surrounded by woodland, which hides mysterious creatures, or so it makes you think….
I must admit that the television advertisements did not attract me to this film. The adverts in my opinion made the film look like your typical “monster – don’t go into the woods” storyline. How wrong I was!

The reason I went to see this film is because I knew that it was directed by the same man that directed ‘Signs’. If you have seen signs you will know (depending on if you like this kind of film) that it leaves you thinking about the hidden meaning behind the ‘stereotypical’ plot. Signs in my opinion is not an alien film but something much deeper. M Night Shyamalan is also the person that directed ‘The Sixth Sense’, again another ‘thinking’ film.

The Storyline

Well, not too sure to be honest. Initially you are lead to believe that a small community is haunted by unknown creatures from the woods. Any indication that the ‘creatures’ were on their way to the village resulted in the community locking themselves away in their houses, and hiding everything that was considered to be the ‘bad colour’ – (red). The villagers were also restricted to living in their own little village with no contact with other towns, as the towns were at the other side of the woods, which of course the villagers are banned from going anywhere near.

Like most films there is a ‘love’ element, which leads to conflict. Village man Lucius Hunt falls for a young woman who is blind. When she returns his love it leads to him being stabbed by her long term admirer – resulting in her wanting to go through the woods to the town at the other side of them to get some medicine.

This is just one of the points in the film that leads you to believe that all is not as it seems. Various people, including Lucius himself had asked the towns ‘mayor’ if they could go through the woods to the local town. Of course they were all refused permission. The blind woman however gets the approval, providing that the other villagers who are guiding her leave her side when she gets to ‘the hidden road’.
T
he point of this is that she was specially chosen for the journey for a reason…..

If you don’t want the film spoiling DON’T READ ON


The overview of the storyline is that the ‘leaders’ of the village have attempted to make sure that the villagers are cut off from the outside world, that they remain ‘innocent’, away from violence, crime and civilisation. A few powerful members of the village invented the creatures of the woods to scare the villagers into thinking they would be killed if they left the village. Consequently the villagers have no idea that the rest of the outside world are not living ‘simple lives’.

Now that I have seen the film I can pick out numerous little ‘snippets’ that are given to you as clues. One of them being the term ‘dumpster’ being used in the earlier part of the film when the village looks as though it hasn’t seen so much as a clean bucket of water never mind a dumpster.

I thought that this film was excellent. As with his other films you spend the first hour thinking of one storyline. The next half hour leaves you totally confused and your brain screaming for clarity. The film is very cleverly done and when the film has finished it leaves you wanting to kick yourself for not realising earlier that it wasn’t your typical horror film.
The plot is clever and interesting, and although some parts are quite unbelievable you don’t get to a point where you think ‘what a load of……’

I wouldn’t really class this film as a horror and if you’re worried about seeing it because you don’t like ‘spooky’ film don’t panic, you will like it trust me

Conclusion

A very clever film, which has got more twists and turns than spaghetti junction. It is slow in parts but the end will leave you that irritated that it hasn’t explained itself you will have forgotten about the slow parts.

A definite thinker, but not for those of you who want a good scare.

Summary: