The film The Village has a very unique style, and some interesting techniques. This style includes things like avoiding what would usually be considered the main focus of the scene, like the monsters. This is done in a variety of different ways, by moving the camera slower than the motion, so that you don’t see much or any of the action. The film also uses a blur affect when the subject is on screen, leaving the viewer with a distorted view. Even when the creatures are shown on screen, they are not shown for very long, until the end of the movie. An example of this is the scene in the watch towner when a creature ran underneath the tree, we see only the view from the perch through the hatch, which has a very limited view. I found these techniques interesting at first, but at some points, the technique doesn’t work, because you don’t know what is happening, and could leave you confused rather than freighted.

What separates this film from the Slasher horror films is the message it leaves you with. Slasher films often will give you the indirect message that you should always be weary in bad situations, but The Village Choses to take a different approach, leaving the viewer with the message that some rules can and may need to be broken in certain situations. This is shown throughout the film when the elders are deciding if anyone should be allowed to leave their Civilization, and who is to go. When Mr. Walker goes behind the backs of the elders, he directly is breaking rules of the town to attempt to save Lucius.

If I was to rate this film, I think that I would put The Village higher than some of the other films in the image, but his earlier films were definitely better. I would place The Village higher because, while this isn’t my favourite film, I enjoyed the use of a new style of horror, even though it isn’t that scary, and the technique with the camera gets old. Compared to the other movies of the list, I would put The Sixth Sense first, Signs second, then The Village.

I think that the director tried a new type of film instead of straight blood and violence to make a name for himself. By making the film different, the film could gain attention from people who are looking for a larger story line, but still like horror. This may leave the movie with lower views, but many will enjoy this type of film. Years later, lots of people know the name M. Night Shyamalan. I think this attention is partly due to The Village, being one of the better films by the director and one of his earlier films.