As with other M. Night Shyamalan films, I liked “The Village”. They have been intelligent stories, well told with their own pacing. I have yet to read a good mainstream review of “The Village, although this seems to be the case for his three films after “The Sixth Sense”. “The Village” was advertised as a supernatural horror film, but apart from a few minor thrills it doesn’t deliver. And Shyamalan never intended it to, for ultimately his tale is not horror. By the conclusion all supernatural aspects will have a natural explanation.

“The Village”, like his previous film “Signs”, is weakened by its lack of commitment to horror, or any genre beyond “Alfred Hitchcock presents…” As characters are not attributed with the motivations that they would were it of the Suspense, Horror, or even the Slasher genre, they tend to be too talky. Tension doesn’t really build between the characters, and many moments that could really spook the audience are left much more low-key. After the twists are shown the major enjoyment of Shyamalan’s films’ comes from the cleverness of the setup and premise, and the interactions of the characters. “The Village” is no different. I wouldn’t go so far as to call Shyamalan a one trick pony, but his lack of adherence to genre conventions means the intensity of this film is flatter than it could be.

In the process of butchering “The Village” with the blunt instrument of the Film Forensic scalpel I’ll retain the elements of the love story between Lucius and Ivy, the secret behind the village, and the twists along the way. Also the supernatural elements will not be enhanced. It will stay within the non-supernatural bounds of the film’s milieu. I’ll wrap it in the conventions of Suspense and Horror movies. To keep the movie taut the underdeveloped romance between Edward Walker and Alice Hunt, while a nice mirror for their children’s romance, will be cut off. I’m also going to amputate the dénouement.

First Suspense. Beyond talking about the unexplained mutilations, the Elders seemed little concerned with them. Scarred by the violence within society they have gone into self-imposed isolation, but the fear that uncontrollable violence has once again entered their lives isn’t developed in the film. The village is an exercise in cult-like control, albeit a well-intentioned one. The internal world of the village is maintained by elaborately manipulating their children’s fear by disguise, lies and what-goes-bump-in-the-night SPFX. Guards in the external world and a bucket load of payola maintain the village’s isolation from without. The Elders are highly motivated to preserve this way of life.

More active Elders could add tension to the story. They shouldn’t be passive after the discovery of the first skinned animal, for from the first they knew there were no monsters. They should do something to protect themselves from the unknown threat, if not trying to discover its source. Of course to protect the lies that the village is built on the Elders must maintain the fiction of the monsters, and keep the children believing that the “pact” is intact. However they could have increased watches, even putting an Elder on watch This would be prudent anyway so that this planted Elder might better control the situation when another disguised Elder “attacks”. Opportunities abound for tension as the Elders agree / disagree with increasing the number of guards, forming a militia, or even imposing a curfew, all without alerting the children as to what is really going on. The debate in the town meetings would be opportunities for those misread conversations that peppered “The Sixth Sense” and make a second viewing of it great as you realized what was really being discussed.

Another approach to the more active Elders scenario is to make them more paranoid. Paranoid Elders founded the village, and the same paranoid Elders could fuel tension within it. Has one of the Elders brought violence into the village? Edward suggests to Ivy in the scene just after he initiates her into the village’s secret that one of the other Elders may be doing the skinning. But this idea isn’t sufficiently explored. As the fear in the village increases, the paranoia could also be increased. Elders could walk the village at night under the guise of protecting the children, but secretly trying to discover which of them is doing the mutilations. Mini factions could form between those who could provide alibis for one another and those who could not. The pressure needn’t have been so blatantly displayed as fisticuffs or threats of violence, something that they wouldn’t do, but I would’ve liked to see the possibility explored at one of the town’s meetings in insinuations and wary glances.

To draw the audience into scenario of a crazed Elder there could be the red herring of Edward and the contents of his mysterious box. All of the Elders have a box that contains items related to the violence they lived through. If Ivy’s grandfather had died not by shooting, but by stabbing, then Edward’s box could contain the knife that was the murder weapon. Just before meeting Ivy to tell her the secret he opens the box to remind himself of the reasons for the village’s foundation. But unlike the disclosure at the end of the film of the box’s entire contents, this time the audience just sees him holding the bloody knife. In the audience’s mind he could be the animal mutilator. It doesn’t make much sense that he could be the mutilator as he was at the wedding when those mutilations were done, but as this scene would be immediately before the one when the truth is revealed to Ivy, the audience may not have time to make that connection. The scene where he takes Ivy out to the shed then has the added tension for the audience that he wishes to murder her.

The second way the Elders could have been used to increase the tension is through paranoia that a violent criminal has somehow crept into their Eden from the outside world. The threat shouldn’t be real, for to have a real stalker takes the focus away from the villagers. Now the Elders have to once again confront the reasons why they started the village. Some Elders could retreat to further isolation; some could support each other with the bonds of friendship they’ve made since the village began. Also Ivy’s trek for medicines would be, as far as the Elders believe, threatening not only for the life of the village itself, but also her own life. Some may oppose her going; some may try to physically stop her. But whether she is allowed to go voluntarily or she has to escape, all the Elders will be changed by her actions.

Next Horror. There are two monsters, the “fake” one played by the Elders, and the animal skinning one played by Noah. Their attacks were presented similarly, and this was an opportunity missed for some “Gore On”. The first attack comes from a disguised Elder, and is appropriately shown with a lack of violence. As no harm will come to the villagers, the camera quickly leaves after showing their initial terror. This remoteness from any violence was infuriating in “Signs”, but works here because there is nothing to show. The disguised Elder doesn’t want to hurt anyone, and so once the villagers have bunkered down nothing else happens.

But by this point the audience’s expectation has been whetted for horror, but then frustrated. If this were a Horror the audience would have expected the body count to begin. But strangely the monster has been seen with no major carnage or bloodletting occurring. There’s not even a missing villager whisked off to be impregnated with eggs. I actually found this to be a clue that the monster was a fraud, because for the threat to be credible you’ve got to see it do something that makes you go, “It’s game over, dude.” Half heard whispers and eerie noises from the dark woods, even backed up by an appearance of the monster aren’t going to keep the young people docile forever.

Indeed the young people of the village will eventually challenge the beasts in the forest. Lucius Hunt and Ivy Walker display the same courage to go beyond the boundaries of their exile. Like the audience, the children have seen little beyond dark shapes, noises and some skinned animals. It is a testament to the brainwashing that the Elders have subjected their children to that their offspring haven’t already formed a militia for protection. But as shown by Ivy and Lucius it can’t last forever.

This could have all changed with Noah’s attack during the wedding. The lack of screen time for Noah’s mutilations is a missed opportunity to ratchet up the audience’s terror by making the threat more credible. We see the aftermath of Noah’s extracurricular activities, but a few skinned carcasses can only hint at what might have been. During the fake first attack Noah is giggling; he is clearly enjoying himself for he is in on the game and knows the Elder’s secret. But Noah is unable to distinguish between right and wrong, and like a nascent serial killer his games have already progressed to killing animals. Indeed he will soon attempt to murder Lucius. From watching the attack of the Elders he could have found it acceptable to terrorize the villagers. And so the attack that comes during the wedding should have been the time to cross the line from Suspense to Horror. No one can actually get hurt; that would terminate the village. But to see the beast attacking, the terrified children, and the mutilation of the animals would make the audience rethink that the monster is a fraud. Later when Ivy journeys through the forest, we must really fear for her. But a monster can be ineffectual only so many times before the audience loses its fear of it.

Finally the dénouement. There are two options I’ll look at here. The first is that the film finishes immediately at the point where Ivy tells the security guard her family name. The audience, right at that moment, has all the information it needs to piece together the story. The rest is an over explanation of the premise, and the trademark appearance of Mr. Shyamalan. These are not needed and lead the audience by the hand. If Mr. Shyamalan really wants to make an appearance I’d suggest being in the photo of the therapy session where the Elders met. A gravestone with his name on it is the explanation why he doesn’t appear in the village as an extra. Unfortunately this option cuts the powerful and beautiful scene where Ivy returns to Lucius’ bed, which maps the future of the village and is the culmination of the love story. As this is a scene I’d really like to keep here is a second option. After Ivy identifies herself to the security guard his procurement of the medicines is inter-cut with Edward’s explanation of the genesis of the village. Only Edward speaks and it is in voice over. This rushes the film to its conclusion rather than dragging it out with unimportant details and unneeded cameos.

As I said I really enjoyed “The Village”, but I’m hoping that Shyamalan’s next film will step beyond Mystery Theater. He has the smarts to again make a great convention-breaking movie like “Unbreakable”.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 28th, 2004 at 7:22 pm and is filed under Thriller, V, winston. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.