The (waferthin) story of M.Night Shyamalan’s The Village is set in late 19th century in a small and almost too idyllic village in the middle of a stately forest.
A utopian community of hard-working, God-fearing folks have settled in this village in the middle of the woods, far from ’’the towns, ’’ as they refer. The elders make all the decisions in the village.
The people in the village believe that there are creatures in the woods and stay within the village boundary marked by large torches lighting the perimeter at night. It is believed that threatening creatures lurk there. The villagers keep the creatures at bay with a color code that banishes all things red and finds safety in yellow.
Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is blind, expresses her affection for the usually quiet Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix). Noah (Adrien Brody) is the village simpleton and Ivy’s other best friend. As this chaste romance develops, the truce between the forest creatures and villagers gets broken. Signs appear on villagers’ doors and livestock turn up dead and skinned but not eaten. A sense of dread sweeps the village.
Meanwhile, in a fit of jealous rage, Noah stabs Lucius when he finds that Lucius is going to marry Ivy. This results in Ivy’s journey through the woods to fetch medicines to heal Lucius.
If you really want to know the rest of the story and the key revelation then see the movie. :)
For most part of the movie, the narrative is very very slow and almost to the point of boredom and the scares are too few and far between them. Though the film’s key revelation may be unexpected, it is too mild to jolt audiences or justify the slow pace of the movie. The movie is 60 minutes longer than required.
I think this movie is only for Night Shyamalan’s fan club.