The Village (2004)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
When a willful young man tries to venture beyond his sequestered Pennsylvania hamlet, his actions set off a chain of chilling incidents that will alter the community forever.
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23 films that influenced The Village
What critics say influenced The Village
Speaking of the derivative aspects of The Village, you'd be better off watching Don't Look Now (1973), The Blair Witch Project (1999) and any episode of The Twilight Zone, chased by a Fantasy Island.
The first sight of one of the red cloaked wood creatures recalls the dwarf of Nicolas Roeg's "Don't Look Now" and one characters death tableau evokes St. George's slain dragon as imagined by Maurice Sendak.
That may well be true but if I had to compare his films to Kings books, then "The Sixth Sense" is "Carrie", "Unbreakable" is "The Shining" and "The Village" is "The Tommyknockers".
Playing a blind girl who must gather the courage to battle unseen fears isn't new-- Audrey Hepburn was probably the best in the 1967 Wait Until Dark --yet, the talented Howard 's naturally blithe and spunky personality brings her own freshness to the character.
Howard, the real life daughter of director Ron Howard, is fabulous is Ivy and parts of the film remind me of the Audrey Hepburn thriller Wait Until Dark, about a blind woman fending off bad guys.
That may well be true but if I had to compare his films to Kings books, then "The Sixth Sense" is "Carrie", "Unbreakable" is "The Shining" and "The Village" is "The Tommyknockers".
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Speaking of the derivative aspects of The Village, you'd be better off watching Don't Look Now (1973), The Blair Witch Project (1999) and any episode of The Twilight Zone, chased by a Fantasy Island.
We can tell you there are moments reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project and scenes that recall Witness.
I was a little skeptical about “The Village,” especially after being subjected to a three hour mock documentary by Nathaniel Kahn (“My Architect: A Son’s Journey”) that, a la “The Blair Witch Project,” attempts to present an intimate, behind the scenes look into Shymalan and the secrecy shrouding his work.
The list of movies that feature blind characters is long: Charlie Chaplin's 1931 "City Lights," "Butterflies Are Free" (1972), "Jennifer 8" (1992), "Scent of a Woman" (1992) and the 2000 "Dancer in the Dark" are just a few that come to mind.
And why not give it away, it's the blind girl who has to walk through the forest, dance in the dark, exile from Dogville , what have you, and then—are y'all ready for The Coolest Ending Of All Time???—when she gets out of the woods, it's like modern times.
Everyone speaks as if they had studied "Friendly Persuasion."
It was shot by the fine cinematographer Roger Deakins (known for his work with the Coen brothers; he was also the director of photography on Martin Scorsese's marvelous "Kundun").
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(To this day, I get annoyed when I see articles that spell out the twist in Shyamalan's splendid 1999 thriller "The Sixth Sense"; surely there are a few of you out there who haven't seen it yet.)
But as a writer, he's becoming a parody of himself: Eager to top the climactic twist of The Sixth Sense, he has masterminded three subsequent movies in which (unlike Sense) the "gotcha!" endings seem to be the only reason for their existence.
When this works -as it did in The Sixth Sense - the payoff can be immense.
I loved both ‘The Sixth Sense” and “Signs” True enough, I didn’t like “Unbreakable”, but even that was preferable to what I witnessed on screen in the form of “The Village”.
With The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, Shyamalan created new and glorious cinematic experiences, twisting known conventions in ways I had never seen, taking huge risks and having them pay off, throwing all of our preconceptions to the wind in the process.
In The Sixth Sense , red announced the approach of the supernatural; in The Village, it announces Shyamalan's debt to not only the master, but also to greats like Vittorio De Sica and Nicholas Roeg.
(August 2/02) out of The Village (July 28/04) If nothing else, you have to admire M. Night Shyamalan for continually playing with the expectations of his audience.
Those who know Shyamalan's films, which are rapidly becoming a spooky mini-genre (also including "Unbreakable" and "Signs") know that the plot's the thing: The still-young writer/director likes to toy with our fears, surprising us with both the monster under the bed and the specter that walks in broad daylight.
The Village isn't really much worse than Unbreakable or the silly Signs, but Shyamalan's carny act already feels like it's decades old -- it's a shame, because some good ideas are squandered in a muddled thriller that ends up duping itself.
Resembling a cross between Big Bird and HR Puffinstuff, Those We Do Not Speak Of evoke more giggling than the aliens from Signs.
I loved both ‘The Sixth Sense” and “Signs” True enough, I didn’t like “Unbreakable”, but even that was preferable to what I witnessed on screen in the form of “The Village”.
With The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, Shyamalan created new and glorious cinematic experiences, twisting known conventions in ways I had never seen, taking huge risks and having them pay off, throwing all of our preconceptions to the wind in the process.
Those who know Shyamalan's films, which are rapidly becoming a spooky mini-genre (also including "Unbreakable" and "Signs") know that the plot's the thing: The still-young writer/director likes to toy with our fears, surprising us with both the monster under the bed and the specter that walks in broad daylight.
The Village isn't really much worse than Unbreakable or the silly Signs, but Shyamalan's carny act already feels like it's decades old -- it's a shame, because some good ideas are squandered in a muddled thriller that ends up duping itself.
I loved both ‘The Sixth Sense” and “Signs” True enough, I didn’t like “Unbreakable”, but even that was preferable to what I witnessed on screen in the form of “The Village”.
With The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, Shyamalan created new and glorious cinematic experiences, twisting known conventions in ways I had never seen, taking huge risks and having them pay off, throwing all of our preconceptions to the wind in the process.
The man has talent--I loved both The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable --but he has, too, the kind of ego that finds his name in three-story letters over the titles of his films and his mug on the covers of his DVDs alongside Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson.
The bond between 'their' world and ours was further extended in Unbreakable.
After a couple of early film failures that he would prefer that you didnt know about (having seen one, 1998s "Wide Awake", I can understand why), Shyamalan hit the big time in 1999 with "The Sixth Sense", a film that spooked many with its low-key shocks and infamous twist ending and annoyed others for being nothing more than an extended "Twilight Zone" knock-off, though admittedly nicely acted, with a final twist that was obvious to anyone who had actually been paying attention to what was going on.
In Wide Awake, a boy about to enter fifth grade at a Catholic school for boys, who is deeply troubled by the death of his grandfather, decides to go on a quest to find God.
Even the quietest, character-driven dialogue scenes are overwhelmed by the music; to get an idea of the effect, imagine watching a scene from Bergmans "Autumn Sonata" with the soundtrack for "Koyaanisqatsi" blasting in the background and drowning out everything.