Another voluptuous piece of tension and Shyamalan's best work since The Sixth Sense
Comment
08/19/04
The Village (2004)
42
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:194
Fresh:82
Rotten:112
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: The Village is appropriately creepy, but Shyamalan's signature twist ending disappoints.
Runtime: 2 hrs
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: M. Night Shyamalan's THE VILLAGE finds the renowned writer-director crafting a suspenseful story of a small community whose inhabitants are plagued by fear of the unknown forest that surrounds... [More]
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Reviews for The Village
Top CriticA powerful tale of isolationism, a desire for innocence and hope, and a fear of the unknown.
09/19/04
Made with such elegance, atmosphere and wonderfully mannered performances it will nestle deep inside your head, refusing to budge.
08/19/04
Top CriticGo in with a snide attitude, desperate to see The Sixth Sense director fail, and you'll leave with your prejudices underpinned. Better to embrace the experience and allow Shyamalan to show off his sublime gift for suspense.
08/19/04
Top CriticThe Village is both atmospheric and beautifully shot, but the end result is deeply disappointing.
08/19/04
Shyamalan surpasses his best to deliver an utterly accessible and totally enthralling film, one of the most original works to hit the big screen in recent years.
07/25/04
Click to read the article
02/09/06
Top CriticSpoiler Right Here: Ben Stiller is in the woods.
07/30/04
Shyamalan can't brings himself to abandon the familiar. Until he does, however, he's just going to keep coming back with diminishing returns.
03/05/05
[Shyamalan] looks only to sideswipe the audience with twists, even if they don't hold up to close scrutiny.
07/30/04
Overall - an average film. A clever story is realized in a rather bland way. Sort of a "Little Red Riding Hood" seed planted in the mind of M. Knight.
08/02/04
So meaningless and distanced in its details that it hardly stands a chance of wooing even the most willing fellow traveler.
08/03/04
Significant and unforgettable.
07/28/04
Disappointing, puzzling and implausible even for Shyamalan's usually sensical world.
08/05/04
Unfortunately, the chills here are poorly thought out, and the plot twists are more predictable than interesting.
08/17/04
This movie is as big a hoax as the notorious Sci Fi Channel faux documentary The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan.
07/30/04
For those who like the director's body of work, appreciate The Twilight Zone, and have a high suspension of disbelief threshold, The Village is likely to satisfy.
07/30/04
The Village is not completely awful, but it comes closer than one would like to admit.
07/04/08
While the pictures are pretty and the whole enterprise takes itself ever so seriously, The Village is not nearly as frightening as it thinks it is.
08/03/04
Even if The Village is one of his lesser works that, like 2002's Signs, doesn't stick to the ribs, it still gets the wheels spinning in one's mind.
07/29/04
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