OK Folks, Major Spoilers Coming Up. Seriously, Don't Read If You Ain't Saw The Flick.

In his review for The Harry Knowles Digest, Moriarty, or plain ol' Drew McWeeny to the taxman, states that "The Village is one of the first films by a major filmmaker to tackle post 9/11 anxiety head-on."

It'd be fairly difficult to argue with the man. Moriarty was one of the first to reveal the "twist" a few months ago, back when he got hold of a script. Back then, the twist hinged on the horrible, ridiculous line; "Stupid fucking white people".

He still feels the flick shoots itself in the foot two thirds in, but admires, among other things, these musings with regards a "culture of fear" and what not.

So, does it actually stand up under the whole post-9/11 analysis malarkey? Permit The Duke to take an in-depth peek, why don't you.

First of all, as far as, y'know, stuff like "the story" is concerned, the parallels are as pronounced as the ones Gwyneth Paltrow got all obsessed with in Sliding Doors.

Some horrendous tragedy, or number of tragedies, what led to the village elders losing those dearest to them, has resulted in these folks stepping outside society on account of sheer terror of what goes on in the big bad world.

But how do you keep the young 'uns from going and getting all inquisitive? You just tell them that the surrounding woods are filled with weird, funny-looking "others", or "Those We Do Not Speak Of", and that if you go investigating, bad things will happen.

The elders are partly justified in their actions because they have suffered a substantial loss, and have created this pervading sense of unease amongst the rest of the villagers, in some part, to ensure that it never happens again.

It's kinda like in Carrie, when the mum uses the Bible for to keep Sissy Spasek from doing shit like, I dunno, having a period and what not, or getting all obsessed with her "dirty-pillows".

The Village doesn't use the Bible. It just concocts some stuff about demons and beasts and spirits and stuff.

But the sad motherfucking truth of the matter is that, despite all the intellectual brouhaha going on, the fact remains thus; The Village is a fantastically well-directed flick, but one blighted by an awful screenplay.

Shyamalan's lack of respect for his audience oozes from the screen at times. Following a big "reveal", what informs us that the whole "creatures in the woods" thing was a load of the "bollocks", and even going so far as to show us a suit hanging on the wall of an old shed, Shyamalan tries, not five minutes later, to draw out a tense scene involving a lass being harassed by one of these fictional sons a bitches, ludicrously attempting to make it plausible by having a snippet of the voiceover saying about "There were rumors of creatures in these woods once" or some such nonsense. It's the exact same fucking suit, man.