M. Night Shyamalan's The Village

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

If those things were supposed to be "the one's we don't speak of" then why did they speak of them every two minutes?

I thought about that, too.

The fact they have the term "Those We Don't Speak Of," you'd think they'd speak of them.  So shorten it up.

I think the movie would've been 40 minutes shorter if they would've shortened their names.  ...And cut out the twist.

It would all be for the better.

[meatball]

Shyamalan's twists aren't twist endings for the fun of having a twist ending. They're the vine which the story grows from, like grapes on a grapevine. Without it, the movie would just be a creature fright film. I guess that's what some audiences wanted though.

[ProgWRX]

spoilers

he found one of the suits of the monsters that we hid underneath the boards in the floor of the room that we happened to put him in.
I hate crap like this in movies.

Spoilers

I'm assuming that room was part of their home. He lived his entire life with access to that room, but never found the suit.

as i saw it, he broke thru the floor trying to escape, there he found the suit.

also, he seemed to *know* ,  even in his retardness or whatever, he wasnt completely innocent...

[The Perineum Falcon]

also, he seemed to *know* ,  even in his retardness or whatever, he wasnt completely innocent...

Retards can't have a sense of right and wrong?

[coffeebeetle]

I Know Not What I Do!!!

[ProgWRX]

also, he seemed to *know* ,  even in his retardness or whatever, he wasnt completely innocent...

Retards can't have a sense of right and wrong?

i meant innocent in the way the young people in the village were... (of the fraud)

[Finn]

OK...after reading lots of reviews and comments from lots of people, here's my final thoughts...

I went back to watch this movie again this afternoon. Going into it I had lots of questions that I still wanted answers to. I knew what the ending was now and maybe I could get some closure on them.

The movie was better the second time around. I still didn't have all my questions answered and there were still a couple things I didn't like about it. But I don't think we're suppose to understand everything about it. It plays like an episode of The Twilight Zone (in a good way). I think this guy's trying to make a social commentary on the way we approach fear and faith. If you take it on that level, the message still gets through regardless of some things you didn't like or understand.

Of course it's beautifully shot and there's a wonderful score by JNH. Those factors don't exactly hurt either. I think it might have been too intellegent for some people (which the audience doesn't like). So many people have called it awful but I think they missed a lot of what the movie is really about and the careful way it's executed.

[tpfkabi]

after all the negative reviews, i was expecting it to be really bad, but i liked it.

several of you are saying that you guessed the ending early on.........what gave it away? i think i was helped because i glanced at a post with "spoiler" on it and i thought it said that J. Phoenix was actually a ghost, so they helped keep me off base.

the cameo was very Hitchcock.
i just read something today that said Night was inspired to write Sixth Sense after seeing an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?
i wish they would release that on DVD

[MacGuffin]

SPOILERS!!!!


To start off, Those That We Do Not Speak Of are discussed; not shown what they can do and are capable of, which kills any sort of set up of suspense when the Villagers come in contact with them. An opening 'scare' as is standard for horror movies to set the tone about the creatures/killer would have served the movie better.

I guessed the ending early on because the film seemed to play like the reality show, "Colonial House," where people are forced to live like they did back then. I was also reminded on Chuck Palahnuik's "Choke" and the theme park. Once I got that, there really left no sense of surprise or suspense. But even without knowing that, Hurt's explanation to Howard and the photograph reveal were tipped way too early. When Howard is in the woods, we already know the monster is a fake, thus tension for her encounter with it is lost.

The film worked better as a love story/triangle, with Howard and Phoenix playing a believable couple. Those moments of watching their affections and feelings for one another blossom, as well as their acting, were the film's strength.

[cine]

Those moments of watching their affections and feelings for one another blossom, as well as their acting, were the film's strength.

Another strength in the film was the credits... the only criticism is that they should've come much sooner.

[tpfkabi]

*spoilers*


hey mac,
when Ivy is in the woods, the whole monster thing is still left in the open...........he said that there were tales of monsters in the woods in the textbook he taught from.....i believe that's where his idea stemmed from to create the monsters in the first place.

here are the things i had questions about:

1. was sigourney weaver willing to let her son die in order to keep the farce?

2. it makes no sense that the villagers talk the way they do because all of the children were born in that environment.....other than to trick the audience.............but my friend offered up the idea that maybe the colony wanted to speak using actual English instead of the slang of modern day.

3. how could the Adrien Brody character make the sound of an actual animal/pig when he's in the woods with Ivy?.....it's obviously an actual one.............shouldn't it have sounded like a human trying to make that sound?

[MacGuffin]

*SPOILERS*

*spoilers*


hey mac,
when Ivy is in the woods, the whole monster thing is still left in the open...........he said that there were tales of monsters in the woods in the textbook he taught from.....i believe that's where his idea stemmed from to create the monsters in the first place.

But it doesn't work because we already saw the suit in the shed. An exact one. So that one bit of V.O. is supposed to give us doubts about it? Weak. You can't play the audience like that to have it both ways.

[The Perineum Falcon]

*SPOILERS*

*spoilers*


hey mac,
when Ivy is in the woods, the whole monster thing is still left in the open...........he said that there were tales of monsters in the woods in the textbook he taught from.....i believe that's where his idea stemmed from to create the monsters in the first place.

But it doesn't work because we already saw the suit in the shed. An exact one. So that one bit of V.O. is supposed to give us doubts about it? Weak. You can't play the audience like that to have it both ways.

Yeah, I was wondering why in the hell Shyamalan did that. Seems like a bad call to me, but it still got a gasping reaction from most of the audience, both times I saw it.

[tpfkabi]

*spoilers*

ok, i can't remember how the timeline was edited.
still though..........someone is trying to get Ivy and we don't know who it is........they don't reveal the suit missing from the floorboard until after he falls in the hole, right?
so the supspense changes from: is Ivy going to be gotten by a monster to; someone is in the monster suit trying to get Ivy........who is it? and will they get her?

p.s. i did actually jump in my seat when Ivy fell in the hole.

[MacGuffin]

*SPOILERS*

*spoilers*

ok, i can't remember how the timeline was edited.
still though..........someone is trying to get Ivy and we don't know who it is........they don't reveal the suit missing from the floorboard until after he falls in the hole, right?
so the supspense changes from: is Ivy going to be gotten by a monster to; someone is in the monster suit trying to get Ivy........who is it? and will they get her?

Exactly. The suspense changes from the monster, that we heard all about for the course of the film, is going to get her to who is in the suit. I'm saying that the reveal of the suit to Howard's character before she even encounters the monster in the woods makes one say, 'She's not really in danger. It's a guy in a suit.' It doesn't matter that a suit was revealed in the floorboards afterwards. We could assume the elders had more than one made, and did. If you're okay with that change in suspense, then fine. That's what you got from it. But, for me, all tension for a 'monster'/horror film had been lost by then.

PS: Her dropping in the hole is not suspense; that's surprise, accompanied by the 'stinger' on the soundtrack.