Distribution Source : ArriveNet Editorials

Date : Sunday - August 01, 2004

John & Becky's Movie Reviews (ArriveNet Editorials - Aug 01, 2004) -- John & Becky's Movie Reviews (ArriveNet Editorials - Jul 27, 2004) -- Becky and I saw "The Village" on Friday night along with a theater filled with teenagers ready to be scared. The official at http://thevillage.movies.go.com/ is more scary than the movie.

The Fandango website - http://www.fandango.com/movie_page.asp?mv=82976&aff=&source=fr3_t describes the story as follows:

The Story
Set in Pennsylvania during 1897, the film revolves around a close-knit community that lives with the frightening knowledge that a mythical race of creatures resides in the woods around them.

The Review
> M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, tries its best to use the suspense of the unknown to drag you into a scary movie. He has done this successfully in the past with his movie "The Six Sense". Remember how creeped out you were when that little boy said, "I see dead people"?

The Village starts by bringing the audience into this little community of people in the 1800's who are living a simple life in a valley with a group of elders overseeing everything. You soon discover that these people are trapped within the boundaries of their village and cannot enter the woods or have any association with the outside world because of the threat of the creatures living in the woods.

The creatures are supposedly attracted to the color red, so the people of the village wear the color yellow when near the woods. As the movie progresses, the suspense builds as talk around the community surrounds the fear of the unknown creatures lurking in the shadows. We wondered what these strange beings looked like and then we got a glimpse of an ugly monster wearing a red cloak with long hairy arms and claws.

The people of the village live in harmony with these bizarre creatures, until one of the members of the community breaks the boundary and ventures into the woods alone. He is the hero of the community, Lucius Hunt, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and he desires to go beyond the borders to get medicine from the "towns" to help the people of his village.

The creatures send a warning by putting a red mark on each door of the village. The elders believed that this was a warning to leave the village. The monsters venture into the village to scare the people into their homes, which is scary for about five minutes, then it goes downhill from there. The village secrets start coming to the surface and you spend most of the movie watching various relationships among the townspeople.

An attempted murder of the movie's hero by a love stricken, mentally challenged villager, forces a blind girl to go into the woods and to the nearest town to save his life. She doesn't want her true love to die. The next thing we knew, it's a blind Little Red Riding Hood (in a yellow cloak) alone to face the big bad wolf.

This movie has a surprise ending like "The Six Sense", but it's a big let down. It would have worked better as a drama. It's very dramatic and not really scary. Becky and I commented that the teenage kids trying their best to get scared with their friends, probably would have had more fun at home watching the Discovery Channel with their parents. The moral of the story? Don't believe the previews or the trailer for this film.

Becky liked the ending and the way it all tied together and thought it was worth the trip. Now that you know it's a drama and not a horror film you should have a better appreciation for the movie. However, I'm still suggesting to wait for the rental.

Becky's Rating: *** Worth The Trip
John's Rating: ** Rental

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