Directed by:
M. Night ShyamalanScreenplay:
M. Night ShyamalanCinematography:
Roger DeakinsComposer:
James Newton HowardCast:
Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson, Cherry Jones, Celia Weston, Jayne Atkinson, Judy Greer (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
An isolated, tight-knit community lives in mortal fear of an oppressive evil inhabiting the forbidden forest just beyond their tiny village. So frightening that no one ventures into the woods ... until one villager dares to face the unknown. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (11)
The Village is a bad film, and a second viewing only deepened that feeling. The first time I was disappointed because I expected something great, the second time I just saw the overly crazy plot that practically begs to be parodied. That village is not a place you want to return to. The horror elements are excellent, but there are only about three minutes of them. That's not enough for such a long runtime and you have to prepare yourself for a long romantic drama with incredibly caricatured characters.
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What the fuck is going on here? Mr. Shyamalan, don't be mad at me, but I don't buy this. The Sixth Sense and Signs were good, hats off to you for that, but I feel you've been wandering in a vicious circle ever since. The Village is just awful – but you know what I mean. It makes me so angry to think how I wasted 100 minutes of my life. And yet, the premise made me expect that there would at least be something happening, that there would be something frightening, that I would see a bold and unconventional movie. Bollocks. Despite the presence of all those great actors, this is one of the biggest and most painful disappointments I've ever seen in a film, and one of the biggest screenwriting screw-ups. It seems it has impressed some people, but there was nothing that impressed me. In the beginning, you can feel some atmosphere, but as the time drags on, when nothing happens at all and only insanely lame dialogues are on the agenda, any glimmer of tension inexorably disappears and you have to accept that the director is either crazy and taking the piss, or he’s completely stupid and the mystery of this film has failed to reveal itself. So I guess I'm a fool, but the moment the mystery of the ghostly apparitions was revealed, I got up and walked away from the TV. I really couldn't be bothered with this, I just couldn't stand one more minute of such an uninteresting piece of garbage. And why I’m giving it that 1* then? For Phoenix, simply. For him and for the other poor actors who had to endure it far worse than I did.
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I by no means claim that The Village is M. Night Shyamalan's best film, but I like it the most. Emotionally, it may resonate with me more than the acclaimed The Sixth Sense. In one of Švankmajer's films, the heroine says: "You have to close your eyes, or you won't see anything." In the case of The Village, it is not necessary to close your eyes but to embrace the director's game and let your imagination carry you away. The film doesn't function as a thriller or even as a horror, and anyone who thinks in terms of traditional genres will inevitably be disappointed. However, The Village, despite many contrary claims in the reviews, offers a range of very good acting performances, directorial ideas, and above all, atmosphere. Overall impression 90%.
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Even if my 5 stars were only for the incredibly gradual and at times literally refined atmosphere, technical perfection, and magical music (the "stupidity" of the story is overlooked; after all, I didn't find the story stupid at all, just reacting to some of the reviews here, hence the quotation marks), this film deserves them. I watch every other Shyamalan effort with anticipation and expectation of a greater or lesser dose of the mystery I found satisfying to say the least in The Village. It should also be noted that the film as such has a rather interesting idea and the moment the viewer gets the point and the pieces of the puzzle are connected, he/she sees the whole film from a completely different angle and perceives the individual characters differently as well (at least it felt that way to me).
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An unexpectedly decent mystery and thriller in the end. I like movies about closed communities of people who are afraid of the outside world, who is there, what is there, what do they want. The decent direction and the awesome ensemble cast only adds to the experience, but the ending comes to an end much like Lost, with a lot of unanswered questions, which annoyed me, so I'm knocking off one star. 70%
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