Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

The Village

(2004)

M. Night Shabadabadoo (or whatever) has had an interesting career. He made two small films no one has ever heard of, then the monster smash hit The Sixth Sense, with Bruce Willis in his best role in some time. I loved it. I was totally taken in, like just about everybody else. Then he made Unbreakable, again with Bruce. I remember it as okay, but frankly I can no longer recall what the big “surprise” was, so it must have been at least unsatisfying. Then he made the perfectly awful, really stunningly bad mega-hit Signs, one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Now comes The Village, and the only good thing I can say about it is that it’s not quite as awful as Signs. I’m even tempted to give away the pathetic, totally unbelievable “surprise” ending so you won’t go see it out of sheer curiosity … but I won’t. It’s not even worth the time it would take to outline it. Let me just say that the idea of a blind woman running through an uneven, branch-strewn forest without her cane and never falling down was just beyond ludicrous. We hated it.