Note: this review contains spoilers.
The Village
** - mediocre
Welcome to the fourth installation of what has become M. Night Shyamalan's cinematic formula: twists, twists and more twists. Evidently still riding the wave of his huge success with The Sixth Sense and its twistage, Shyamalan is case example of a young director trying to cement his voice. Think about the fact that Bergman never really fully shut up about religion, or Hitchcock's full oeuvre of horrors, thrillers and mysteries; a director can continue going a similar pace without becoming a 'one-trick pony'. Shyamalan is certainly no Hitchcock, but I'll give credit where credit is due: the man is obviously trying to maintain a level of consistency in his work. And it's time to stop.
My main problem isn't with the concept of twists in his film - although it certainly has becoming boring - but that Shyamalan has becoming increasingly ambitious in concept of becoming more than a popcorn director by interjecting something into his films: subtext. Subtext and horror may not go hand-in-hand for the many that write off the genre, and while I generally am not the biggest fan of horror (probably because I don’t scare easily, and don’t have the fetish for gore that sometimes seems necessary to get into them), I certainly concede that horror films can come from artists and be pieces of art. Hitchcock has given us numerous examples, but take Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby as one example. On its surface the film is a very entertaining but generally unscary thriller, but what makes the film more compelling is when it is read as Catholic guilt over sex and abortion. Horror directors - or at least the good ones - tend to scare us on the surface with “boo!” moments, creepy imagery and gore - but also attack our subconscious with the subtext of their films. I love Hitchcock’s Rear Window not only because it’s absolutely thrilling, but also because it’s study of the secret desires of human detachment, be it with eroticism or viewing other human lives.
The problem is that Shyamalan’s formula doesn’t complement his strives for artistry in the slightest, giving off the sense that The Village contains two films that are attacking one another. His previous film, Signs, suffers from this even more than The Village does; this new film may have gotten ripped apart by critics, but I hold fast to the notion that the hokiness of Signs is much more unbearable. Even if The Village is less (although not by much) glaring in Shyamalan’s inability to successfully merge artistry and a good horror story, his increased ambition in what he’s trying to say with it outweighs the minor improvements he’s made in tying his two contradicting films together. Signs was a hokey and dumb human story of regaining one’s faith set in the backdrop of an initially interesting, but increasingly moronic, alien invasion; The Village is Shyamalan trying to make a more general statement on humanity, and perhaps even a political one.
Article comments
1 - Chris Kent
Great post John and some terrific points. I enjoyed reading this and was fascinated by your take on this film.
2 - Justene
Caution this comment contains even more spoilers:
I saw it last night so I could read all these posts withut being spoiled. I think it works as the Hitchock style horror film but I'm a wuss. There was a little too much giggling from the audience.
I suspect the reason that it doesn't work is that there were too many unanswered questions. Leave open plot points and you're basically saying to the audience "accept my premise as a given." My list of questions:
What color was Lucius and why did it matter?
Why did the guard keep the secret?
Who did kill the livestock and why?
When they found the livestock, why did two elders, with no one else present, talk as if they didn't know the secret?
The first two points hinted at something so special about the Village, beyond the social experiment it was, that they should have been explored or left out.
The second two hunted at a subplot of betrayal that was incompletely edited out, leaving only the message of "you can't control everything."
3 - Tom
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The Livestock was killed by Noah. He was much older, and in on the secret. That's why he lauged alll the time when he heard the sounds in the woods.
The elders didn't talk as if they didn't know the secret. They didn't know who did those things. Whoever did them didn't have Walker's permission, and they were discussing how to spin it to the rest of the village.
Who did kill the livestock and why?
When they found the livestock, why did two elders, with no one else present, talk as if they didn't know the secret?
The first two points hinted at something so special about the Village, beyond the social experiment it was, that they should have been explored or left out.
The second two hunted at a subplot of betrayal that was incompletely edited out, leaving only the message of "you can't control everything."
4 - imondeau
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Lucius' color was Red. When his blood is spreading across the floor she tells her father to "get them away so they won't see his color."
5 - Tom
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I didn't catch that. I want to go see this movie again. It always takes a few views of a Shyamalan movie to get them fully.
Lucius' color was Red. When his blood is spreading across the floor she tells her father to "get them away so they won't see his color."
6 - tajapooh
The Village is a powerful commentary on the effects of fear and powerlessness on a society. The most stressful thing that any human can suffer is exposure to an obvious threat that they are prevented from acting against. In creating such an environment, the 'elders' bred a generation paralyzed by fear - only Lucius and the blind girl were possible leaders going forward. After 9/11, we had the opportunity to mobilize the entire population to fight terrorism - for example, by weaning ourselves off of mideast oil. Instead, we were told to go shopping. In November, I hope we will all stand up and be counted as the Villagers eventually did - vote our way out of paralyzing fear.