Sergio Leone and Alfred Hitchcock were masters at drawing the suspense out of a situation. Just watch the climactic scene to ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ or ‘Rear Window’ to see how it’s done. After the success of ‘The 6th Sense’ and ‘Signs’, people began to mention M. Night Shyamalan with that group. His film ‘The Village’ puts all that talk to rest.

‘The Village’ tries to draw out suspense, but fails. As a result it’s simply…drawn out. To be perfectly honest, I think Shyamalan’s ego has gotten in the way of his filmmaking ability. (For a good demonstration of his ego, look at his cameo towards the end of the film). He pretty much wills his way through a terrible script with nothing more than creepy acting and cinematography. In fact, my biggest qualms with the film lie in the script. First of all (spoilers ahead), the opening of the film shows the tombstone of a child who died in 1897. That right there is basically a lie. You could argue that they wanted an antiquated setting, but in a completely reclusive society, isn’t the year just a number?

Regardless, I wanted to focus much of my rant on the existence of one character: Noah Percy (the crazy dude). For starters, I can say that he’s very much out of place with the rest of the mood of the film. But that isn’t the biggest issue. It’s the fact that he’s basically introduced because the plot of the film needs a crazy dude to make crucial plot points that under normal circumstances wouldn’t make any sense. First off, he grabs that red plant for no reason. Then, he stabs Lucius, which isn’t completely inconceivable but it’s quite a stretch of reason. But in the biggest plot contrivance, he finds a monster costume underneath his timeout building, and has the wherewithal to dress up in it and go after Ivy. First of all, I thought he couldn’t get out of this shed thingy. Second of all, why is there a costume in there if the rest of them are in the shed?? Third of all, how in God’s name does he know where she went? Fourth of all, why is he coming after her in the first place?? Fifth of all, this is a mentally challenged person, how can he possibly grasp that the terrible creatures are really just costumes?? Sixth of all, this movie blows.