The Village Review: An overly hated slow-burn horror
When The Village came out in 2004, a lot of people started to doubt M. Night's ability to direct a film because, well, they didn't like The Village for whatever reason. After the widespread success of The Sixth Sense and Signs, expectations for the film were high, but it didn't deliver for many people. However, I didn't see it as a decline at all, and personally found it a step up from Signs. While it's not my favorite film in the world, The Village is a great horror flick. And that's what today's review is here for: to defend an overhated film.
What I love about The Village is that it's a slow-burn psychological horror with a believable yet recontextualizing twist that really made the film for me. While some people hate the film for the twist, I thought it made the film all that much better. I firmly believe that The Village is not a miss for Shyamalan. It may not have hit as hard as The Sixth Sense or The Visit (my personal favorite film of his!), but it's still a very strong film.
Shyamalan's more subdued approach to horror has always made me respect him as a filmmaker. He's one of the only creators who has consistently made high quality PG-13 horror films, making him a fantastic horror filmmaker for beginners to the genre. The film relies less on conventional scares and more on psychological dread. Set in a rural village that's being attacked by monsters, the film plays it straight for the majority of the film as a creature feature.
While shifting away from that creature feature nature hurt the film for many, The Village has one of my favorite plot twists in recent memory. I mean, it's my favorite part of the film, honestly. I also love the atmosphere created by the haunting cinematography, minimalist score, and color grading. As always, I appreciate when films like The Village restrain from revealing the creatures too early and lose the inherent fear of the unknown.
The Village is a great slow-burn horror film that delivers hauntingly memorable atmospheric tension, stunning cinematography, and an underrated twist that recontextualizes the film in a satisfying way.
I also enjoyed the characters here, with Bryce Dallas Howard's Ivy bringing a unique perspective to the genre as a blind woman. I always love when horror films have blind characters; they're always just more interesting to follow. My favorite horror protagonist of all time is probably Susy Hendrix in Wait Until Dark, after all (if you like that film, check out my review here!). Joaquin Phoenix also did a great job in this film, and the romance between him and Ivy is the crux of the film, and is a great juxtaposition to the film's fear-filled elements. Their relationship brings the emotional stakes of the film, grounding the horror in relatable human experiences such as love, connection, and sacrifice. I've always appreciated Shyamalan's focus on characters and his films' zany dialogue that always stands out, even if that's for the worse for many film-goers, I appreciate its uniqueness.
The Reel Ranker Verdict
Reel or Unreel? - Reel
The Reel Ranker Score: 74%
Letter Score: A
Star Ranking: 3.5 out of 5
While The Village isn't my favorite horror film of all time, it's a film experience that has lingered in my mind ever since I watched it. While slow-burn rural horror has never been my favorite genre, this is an excellent example of how well that genre can be done. If you enjoy slower, more atmospheric horror with great cinematography, please do yourself a favor and watch this film. It is a far better film than most give it credit for, and if this type of horror were a part of my favorite subgenre, I'd probably give it 4.5 or 5 stars. So, if you are a fan of this type of horror, I implore you to disregard the Rotten Tomatoes score and give it a shot, because it might just be one of your new favorites. If nothing else, it's a great one to show your kids to hook them into the genre, like my dad did for me as one of my first horror experiences.
Check out my other M. Night reviews below! I will continue to update this as I post more reviews or more films come out!
Brighton Nelson
Or check out my article on The Village that I did when I worked for Screen Rant down below! It's basically this article, but more formal and less of my style. If you don't like the typical casual and concise approach in my articles, you'll probably enjoy this one a decent bit more...
Brighton Nelson
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