The Village (2004) Dir: M. Night Shyamalan

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This 2004 mystery horror, from the widely known, and sometimes mocked, director M. Night Shyamalan, has been on my watchlist for some time. All jokes aside, Shyamalan has produced some genuinely good films, most notably, of course, being 'The Sixth Sense'. I had heard some fairly good things about this film as well, which, as far as I was concerned, was enough to warrant at least checking it out.

I actually enjoyed the film's visual aesthetics quite a bit. The costume designs were relatively basic, but they were convincing enough. My favourite aspect of the visuals, however, was the use and emphasis of colour, especially red and yellow. Those colours really popped on the screen, and the visual metaphors behind their uses were clear.

The film built suspense nicely, albeit I never found myself particularly spooked out. It was more atmospheric than scary, in that sense. I also found the monster aspect of the film a little goofy, although, I will admit, their design wasn't actually that bad. The story integrated these factors well, and I really enjoyed the subversion of audience expectations with some of the character roles. Unfortunately, I already knew the film's big twist, which did take away from my personal enjoyment a little, but I imagine it could still be a cool reveal for those who don't know it prior to viewing it for the first time.

I am quite a fan of Bryce Dallas Howard's acting usually, and I certainly was a fan of this performance too. She has a real knack for fearful or emotional facial expressions, and she utilised this ability to great effect on a number of occasions. On the other side of the lead acting coin, Joaquin Phoenix provided another one of his familiarly odd performances, which tend to leave people divided. I didn't mind it too much, but his innate awkwardness did get a little stale as the film progressed.

The supporting cast was unexpectedly star-studded, although the performances ranged from adequate to rather silly, most obviously in the case of Adrien Brody, whose character has become pretty dated by today's standards. Meanwhile, the likes of Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, and Brendan Gleeson provided the most mentionable performances, for their varying roles, particularly Hurt, in this instance.

Overall, I actually quite enjoyed this intriguing horror film. No, it wasn't particularly scary, but it created an interesting and insular environment, and gave it some flecks of mystery and fantasy that made it a little different. I wish I had been able to enjoy this one without having prior knowledge of its twist, but, regardless, I'm glad I still liked the reveal, even if it was just a tad silly. Either way, I thought this was a really solid film.