The Village (2004)

The Village is a cautionary tale when it comes to any aspiring director’s ambition in this case M Night Shyamalan. He had a practically perfect discography of films at the time (excluding his first two films that nobody seems to remember being made so…I won’t either) The Sixth Sense was a phenomenal film with one of the best ending twist in any film ever, then he followed it up with Unbreakable his best in my opinion then Signs which despite the fact it received a mixed critical reception I think it is the best alien invasion film of the 21st century. Shyamalan then made The Village a film that is one of the most laughable of all time. Practically everything Shyamalan thinks is “scary” or “involving” is unintentional comic genius; you need look no further than “We have the magic rocks. They will keep us safe.” On a more serious note M.Night’s Hitchcock influence whilst trying to create scenes of tension is very misguided here as all the scares lack the sense of increasing dread like the tent scene of Sixth Sense or the unsettling Signs birthday tape which both built to their climax. The film also suffers from very wooden acting from A-list actors like Joaquin Phoenix and Sigourney Weaver who (admittedly) had to deal with bad accents and an even worse script. The film also feels overlong despite being only 108 minutes long as the film far too often lingers on pointless aerial shots of the village and of the uninteresting characters that inhabit it. The film also doesn’t have a real plot for most of the film and it just shows the village from one day to the next so in that respect maybe The Village would have been better suited as a TV show.