Let's twist again, like we did last movie! (The Village (DVD))

Name: Ailran

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	The Village (DVD)
Date:	08/11/05 (186 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks nice, starts well.

Disadvantages: Pretty much everything else!

M Night Shyamalan has made a name for himself by writing and directing films that are slightly off centre from the real world. Everything looks as it does in ‘our’ world but it is one that is populated by the paranormal myths and creatures we all know about.

The ghosts of Sixth Sense, the superhuman of Unbreakable and the aliens of Signs all exist in this supernatural world, but are also plausible enough for the tension that Shyamalan builds up to succeed. I sometimes feel that his climaxes need work but there is no denying his control of the audience.

The downside to his writing is the unexpected twist that he throws into the mix. This worked perfectly in Sixth Sense, as it was a surprising shock in the tail (okay it was blatantly obvious to the hardened filmgoer but was done very skilfully) from a director making his first major film.

After the same kind of last scene twist in Unbreakable anyone who notices directors’ names find themselves looking for what could be the twist in successive films. This is the situation Shyamalan now finds himself in. Can he break away from what is expected of him without ruining the audience’s expectations? Even more importantly, for Shyamalan is can he extract himself from this Catch 22 situation before it is too late and his work becomes formulaic?

With The Village we have more of the same - the same atmosphere, the slow building tension and ‘jump in your seat’ shocks. All of which Shyamalan excels at.
The setting this time is not the present but 19th century America. A small community, living away from the rest of civilisation, bordered by a forest populated by ‘them’, creatures that have a fragile truce with the elders of the village. You stay out of our forest and we will stay out of your village.

The plot is intriguing and has a wealth of possibilities. The setting of 19th century America gives us a location in time when the possibility of the creatures existing may be as unlikely as it is today, but the villagers belief that they exist is extremely likely. It was a time when fear of the unknown and the devil was high and religious belief
prevalent.

However, this is where Shyamalan’s reputation becomes a hindrance. I found myself looking for the twist, wondering what it was going to be, knowing that there was going to be one, after all that is almost as much a trademark of an Shyamalan film as the spooky atmosphere. The situation in which he now finds himself is a detriment to his work, it affects the way people view his films and is possibly the reason behind the terrible reception The Village has received.

Nevertheless The Village is an immense improvement on Signs. It is immensely stylish, is wonderfully shot, has some outstanding acting (William Hurt, Bryce Howard and Adrian Brody particularly) and has some scenes that really do make you jump in your seat. The only other film in recent times to make me leave the comfort of my seat involuntarily was the New Zealand horror ‘The Locals’.

Shyamalan has managed to take the curiosity of the viewer and build on it, he plays with your perceptions like a master. He pulls you into the world of the community and makes you feel the terror, that old cliché of cutting the tension with a knife can never have been more appropriate than for the first time ’they’ venture into the village. You are caught up in the situation to such a degree that you start to believe what the villagers believe and begin to uncover the secrets as they do.

While not a classic by any means The Village is nowhere near as bad as most reviewers seem to have made out. It has enough good things going for it that make it worth going to see. I just hope that with his next film Shyamalan will try to do something different. I would love to see him try his hand at something a bit more light-hearted. Okay, I know that it is unlikely but I feel he really needs to open up his range of films before everyone becomes bored of them (if they haven’t already going by the reviews) and he becomes even more predictable.
Come on Shyamalan let’s see you make a comedy!

DVD Extras:

Deleted scenes: which like 90% of all deleted scenes were deleted for a good reason.

6 featurettes – The Cast of the Village, the making of the Village, writing the Village, mixing, sound design, music and editing the Village, the ending of the Village and the release of the Village.

Again I am not a fan of these kind of things, they tend to bore me and I didn’t really find these any more interesting than every other one I’ve seen.

Bryce’s Diary – A diary by the daughter of Ron Howard and star of the film which is more like a gushing fans diary than anything interesting.

Shyamalans Home Movie – A film he made when he was 16, pointless really.

As you can tell I didn’t really think much of these extras at all and am glad I borrowed the DVD to see them and had not bought it myself!

Running Time: 108 minutes
Certificate: 12

*Finally can someone who has seen the film explain to me the gravestone at the beginning of the film? If you can leave me a message on another one of my reviews so as not to talk about it in the comments of this one!

Summary: Another film from Shyamalan that's all the same.