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The latest thriller from M. Night Shyamalan is a carefully crafted, deliberately paced period piece that creates an atmosphere of unease at the outset and steadily ratchets up the suspense, culminating in a surprise revelation that completely upends the story and confounds audience expectations. It's set in a small, self-contained Pennsylvania village with all the trappings of 18th-century Colonial America. The residents have lived there for years, left alone by mysterious creatures that dwell in the surrounding forest -- as long as the villagers don't enter the woods. With the surfacing of serious health problems that can only be addressed by medicine, young Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) decides to risk a trip to the outside world for supplies, despite the opposition of village elder Edward Walker (William Hurt), Edward's daughter Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard), and even his own mother, Alice (Sigourney Weaver). The villagers fear that any excursion into the woods is bound to infuriate the seemingly supernatural beasts that dwell there, and these concerns seem justified after nocturnal visits by the creatures. Shyamalan keeps a tight rein on these arboreal adversaries: Their presence is suggested more than shown, giving us only brief, under-lit glimpses of their fearsome figures. His direction is characteristically restrained and unobtrusive; rather than bombard the audience with shocking images and jarring cuts, he creates an atmosphere of slowly mounting terror calculated to unnerve even the most jaded viewer. The degree to which he succeeds will be evident in your reaction to the film's climax, which strikes some as audacious and others as outrageous. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

M. Night Shyamalan, the creative mind behind The Sixth Sense and Signs, wrote and directed this characteristically atmospheric thriller. The rustic village of Covington is a small town in rural Pennsylvania that is home to 60 souls. The citizens of Covington lead a quiet and peaceful life, but not without an unusual caveat -- terrible creatures lurk just outside the borders of the village, and the people of Covington have reached an agreement of sorts with the beasts, in which they are allowed to go about their business as long as they never cross the village's boundaries. However, this precarious balance is upset when a headstrong young man, Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix), decides to find out what lies outside Covington, and unwittingly invites the wrath of the creatures upon the town. The Village also stars Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Adrien Brody, Judy Greer, and Bryce Dallas Howard; both Kirsten Dunst and Ashton Kutcher were at one time attached to the project, but both left the cast before filming began. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 786936242867
• Source: TOUCHSTONE / DISNEY
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: THX-Supervised Mastering, Dolby Digital Surround EX
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: Français, Español
• Time: 1:48:00
• Sales Rank: 18,041

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Signs / the Village

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