I recently saw the latest visceral screen fest from M. Night Shyamalan called “The Village”. Like most reviewers, I decided early on who and what the “bad things” were and I had a reasonable idea what was outside the forest. That said, I still enjoyed most of the film and there were several moments where the movie provided a scare great enough to get most of the audience screaming.
The cast was also quite good, with the newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard really stealing the show. What I wonder is this: is Mr. Shyamalan getting lazy or are audiences just expecting more out of films? “The Sixth Sense” was really a break out film, but his follow-on work seems a bit more obvious, more predictable. Maybe I just need more special effects and character development in my films, I dunno.