M Night Shyamalan’s The Village

I know it’s been released for ages, but last night was the first chance I got to watch The Village. I remember seeing some of the hype for the movie a while back and I initially thought that it looked, well, a bit boring. Possibly a bit of a slow boiler.

The film is basically about a community living in Convington Woods. Surrounded by woodland, they live in a ‘truce’ with Those We Do Not Speak Of, a race of hideous monsters who live in the forest. No-one from the village crosses into the woods and the creatures leave the village people alone.

From the outset, The Village is a brooding, intense movie. Shyamalan sustains this by keeping appearances by the monsters to a minimum and using the camera to create the impression that someone is always watching from the woods. There are plenty of plot twists to keep you guessing (I won’t reveal them all!), but just when you think you’ve got the whole thing worked out, the story shifts again and you’re left guessing.

The cast, particularly Bryce Dallas Howard, are fantastic. I still find it hard to believe William Hurt was the Grim Reaper in Bill & Tes’s Bogus Journey!

When the DVD started, I was half-expecting this to be the sort of file I might fall asleep to, but I was wrong. The Village is a fantasticly tense tale with a great twist at the end. Shyamalan has managed to hang on to the ‘Master of Suspense’ crown yet again!