The Village
The Village is an American period horror film of 2004 that was directed, written and produced by M. Night Shyamalan. The film is all about a village whose people live in fear of some monster creatures that occupy the woods beyond it. The film has a twist ending which resulted in it to receiving mixed reviews where most of the critics expressed disappointments due to the twist. The film, however, has the typical characteristics of a suspense thriller with the music and camera work leaving the viewers on the edge of their seat. In the film, the residents of the isolated small Pennsylvania village of Covington live with the fear of some hominid creatures that live in the woods (Jordan, Miriam, and Julian). They built watchtowers and a substantial barrier of oil lanterns which keep off the watch to ensure that the villagers are aware when a monster breaks into the Village.
After a child is buried, the elders of the Village deny Lucius a request to go through the woods in search of medicine from the towns in the neighborhoods. His mother later reprimands him for wanting to visit the neighboring towns which, according to the villagers, were wicked. The elders in the film appear to have some secrets where they kept mementos hidden in black boxes which supposedly were reminders of the tragedy and evil that was in the towns they had left behind. When Lucius made an illegal venture in the woods, the monsters left splashes of red paints on the doors of the villagers as a form of warning. Chief elder Edward Walker’s daughter, Ivy Walker reveals her strong feelings to Lucius who returns her affections.
They plan a wedding but a young man who had a developmental disability, Noah Percy stabs Lucius with a knife for being in love with Ivy. Noah gets locked in a room before a decision regarding his fate awaited. Edward decided to go against the wishes of other elders and agreed to let Ivy go through the forest to find medicine for Lucius however before she leaves, the chief explains to her that the creatures that lived in the woods were members of the community who wore costumes. They did so to deter and frighten others from trying to leave. Two young men and Ivy are then sent into the forest; however, the two abandons Ivy in fear of the creatures. While travelling across the forest, Ivy is attacked by one of the creatures, but she tricks it into falling in a deep hole to his death.
The creature was Noah who had worn a costume that he found in the room where he had been contained after stabbing Lucius. Ivy finally finds a way to the edge of the woods where after climbing a high wall, she found Kevin a park ranger who spots her and is shocked seeing that she was from the woods. The woods were a wildlife preserve of Walker, Ivy’s family. Kevin gives her all the medicine in her list, and she gave him a golden pocket watch as payment. It is at this time that it is made clear that the Village was founded in the 1970s after Edward Walker approached some people in a counselling clinic who were all suffering the pain of the death of their loved ones who died crime-related deaths.
They together joined him in creating a place that was safe from the outside world hence building Covington with the centre of a wildlife preserve that Edward purchased using his fortunes. According to Kevin, the Walker Estate pays the government so that it could keep the forest a no-fly zone and funds the ranger corps to keep the woods from outside disruptions. After she gets the medicine, Ivy returns to the Village, and while she was away, the elders opened their black boxes that contained mementos of their past life (Jordan, Miriam, and Julian). The elders gather when she returns with claims that she had killed a monster. Edward informs Noah’s mother that his death would allow the continued deceiving of the other villagers of existing creatures in the woods, and all elders agree to continue living in the Village.
The plot of the film excites more than it scares. It is unique in that it employs a robust romantic theme. However, it centres between two storylines which define the film’s genre. The first storyline concerns the conflict among the monsters who live in the woods and the people of Covington while the second storyline involves the romance of Ivy and Lucius. The two-story lines and the style adopted by Shyamalan results to the film being a horror-romance film. Many different characteristics define horror movies in which The Village follows some while it does not follow others. An example is that most horror movies adapt the theme of the unfamiliar invading the familiar, a theme that is relatively transparent in the film.
This is by the monsters and the woods where the monsters inhibit being unfamiliar while the Village is familiar. Horror films usually contrast the known from the unknown which in the movie the red color signifies the evil within the forest and the villagers refer to the color as wrong. The yellow color serves as the Village’s thematic color as the Village is with stalk contrast to the woods. The Village also follows the horror character of nameless fears and anxieties, and this can be seen by how everyone in the Village apart from the elders live in a world full of fear and one that they cannot explain. All they know about the monsters is that they live in the woods, and they are not supposed to make them angry by going beyond the borders.
This creates tension in a variety of meetings between the elders and Lucius. Lucius is courageous and does not see any reason why he could not go to the towns, and he is not terrified by the fear that no one understands unlike the rest of the villages. The film can be classified into being a horror film; however, it does not belong to one genre since it is much more complicated. The romance between Ivy and Lucius creates a new dimension of the film (Jordan, Miriam, and Julian). All romance films are usually characterized by the main characters in a movie being involved in affections. The genre romance is wide and broad; however, in the Village, the sub-genre romance that is portrayed is the sacrificial love romance.
Both characters in a romance, Ivy and Lucius are seen sacrificing themselves a lot in the film. Lucius risks his life to save Ivy during their wedding day when monsters come into the Village. Lucius also takes a knife from Noah for loving Ivy. Ivy risks her life after Lucius was stabbed by Noah by try to go through the woods in an attempt to find some cure for him. Shyamalan’s film The Village successfully puts together the romance and horror movie genres into a satisfying package.
Works Cited
Jordan, Miriam, and Julian Jason Haladyn. “Simulations of Evil in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village.” Critical Approaches to the Films of M. Night Shyamalan. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2010. 175-188. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230112094_11