The Village [2004]

April 17, 2010

Another movie from M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, Lady in the Water), is one of his first to caught the general audience affection. His unique style of directing that’s balancing the extremes between the plot and the characters is polarizing but also exciting. This catch-all attitude enables The Village to work as a character study for some people, a frightening horror for others and finally a thriller for most of the people. This also means that whatever your stance is, you get two more aspects for free. I get this feeling that Night is following in the footsteps of George Lucas who described the script for Star Wars as a synthesis of world myths and literary works. He just listened to the echoes of the humanity and presented us with his version, adapted to our current times. Night is also dealing with some broad subjects, using them cleverly to make movies that are supposed to be works of art. However, exactly the way they were conceived guarantees that they will not be what he wanted.

A small isolated village lives in fear of mysterious creatures that live in the nearby woods. They have formed a pact that seemingly preserves the peace between them. But after medical supplies are needed from the city, strange things start to happen. This is a more story and suspense driven movie than a classical horror. Joaquin Phoenix was amazing, one of his best performances and along with his other movies he earned a status of one of mine favorite actors. You must have seen one of the Nights films, so check this one out, you know it is going to be good. The next one is The Devil that is coming out in 2011, and it is going to be awesome (A group of people are trapped in a elevator. After a while, they will discover that among them is present the devil itself). Enjoy.