The VillageIt is impossible to completely extricate oneself from suffering or quarantine the darkness in society. The Village is a psychological horror movie about a sequestered and remote community located in a valley deep within Covington Woods. Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard)--daughter to one of the village "elders", Edward Walker (William Hurt)--leaves the security of the village to obtain medicine to save her beloved, the taciturn Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix), after he was attacked by Noah Percy (Adrien Brody), a young man with psychological difficulties. Creatures that are a combination of predators and guardians known as "Those We Don't Speak Of" are reputed to stalk the woods she must traverse; and Ivy's journey into the unknown is even more perilous because she is blind.
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Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, The Village continues the trend from filmmaker's previous films--that there is a "twist" that completely alters the audience's perception of earlier events in the story. But rather than being merely an auteur's leitmotif, it speaks to other crucial themes in The Village, including deception itself, explored through the preponderance of secrets and lies that make up the firmament of this colonial community. Perception is another theme, and is explored through Ivy, which is ironic given that she cannot see and yet is permitted to go beyond the boundaries of the town. These two themes run counter to one another and underscores an inescapable contradiction and generational divide in the village. The Village opens with the burial of the child of one of the village's other elders, August Nicholson (Brendan Gleeson); the boy's tombstone suggests that the year is 1897. The Village is made to resemble a time period not yet ravaged by the 20th century, and all of its perceived evils--violence, hatred, world wars, and so on. Covington is presented as a religious--even puritanical--community, and the residents praise God as they go about their daily duties. But if Covington adheres to any particular denomination, it is unrecognizable; point of fact, there is no evidence that a church even exists in Covington. There is a sizable dread that looms over Covington, coming from the ubiquitous threat of the menacing beings purported to lurk within the surrounding wood. The village appeases Those We Don't Speak Of in seemingly arbitrary ways, including a village-wide ban on anything that is red--they associate the color with the monstrous creatures--as well as ritual offerings of animal carcasses, hurled onto a stone altar on the outskirts of town.
There is an instance where one of Those We Don't Speak Of makes its way into town, skulking through the village, forcing those like Ivy and her sister, Kitty (Judy Greer), to hide beneath the floorboards until the threat has passed. The younger generation of Covington is ruled by their fear of red-cloaked overlords, and the threat of Those We Don't Speak Of has as much of a religion to them as any other that one might find in a sequestered community like this one. The elders behave as though the presence of monsters were merely a fact of life, and they instead speak of the towns beyond the forests with even greater trepidation. Because the elders are reluctant to share any specific information about Those We Don't Speak Of, the children rationalize ways for them to explore the world and leave the village. A nervous Lucius observes that August's son perished likely as a result of lacking medicine from "the towns", and volunteers to venture through the woods to obtain some, relying on his own "innocence" to safeguard him from assault. When Ivy makes the journey herself, she is given a pouch full of "magic rocks", intended to quell the apprehension of her two guardians feel in breaking their longstanding taboo of passing the threshold. Her companions conclude that there is something spurious about the rocks, wondering why the elders didn't use them before. Each question that the children ask of the elders is met with either vague or inconsistent replies in their deliberately archaic diction--a detail not lost on Lucius, who accuses the elders of keeping "secrets" from them. Lucius's mother, Alice (Sigourney Weaver), shares that before the elders came to Covington, they suffered under the wickedness of the towns, and tells Lucius about how his father's body was discovered to make her point. But this merely sidesteps the fact that the elders are withholding truths from their children, despite their claims that it is in the interest of preserving their progeny's innocence. When Lucius brings firewood to August--who is still grieving for his son--the elder comments about how "we ran from sorrow", while staring at a locked box kept under his stairs. It is the same kind of box which Lucius's mother and all the other elders possess, which Alice claims contains the memories of their "evil pasts". The elders intentionally obfuscate the truth from their children, despite their protestations that it is done out of love. When the lies are undone, it is confusing and shattering for them--a betrayal that evinces that they couldn't trust their children to make up their own minds about the world.
It is not by coincidence that the character of Ivy is blind, since perception represents the counterpoint to deception, which is the source of the elders' power. Even though Ivy cannot "perceive" the world as others do in Covington, she is a perceptive person. She understands the personalities of her close friends like Lucius and Noah, and she often cuts to the heart of the matter in her conversations with people. She comments that she can see the "colors" that people radiate, and teases Lucius by not telling him his color, hoping that she will incite him to be more attracted to her. She is aware that Lucius doesn't touch her anymore not because he doesn't like her, but because he is in love with her, and she hints at this often with him. Ivy seems like an unlikely choice to venture into the strange and unfamiliar woods by herself, but she is quick to understand her surroundings, which means the difference between life and death when she is confronted by a threat in the woods. Her father recognizes her intelligence and good nature, and comments that she "sees light where others see dark"; he says this shortly before revealing a huge secret to her that changes her perception of the woods surrounding the village forever. This revelation should quell her apprehension about venturing into the territory of Those We Don't Speak Of--yet the conditioning of her upbringing still lingers. Ivy's blindness is exploited--consciously or unconsciously--by her father, who gives her approval to make the journey since she will not be "tainted" by the forbidden knowledge of what lies beyond the village. Just as Ivy's perception is crucial in interpreting The Village, the elders' perception of reality is what led to the creation of their village in the first place. There are several scenes where the elders speak with the younger generation and comment about their tragic experiences prior to founding Covington. These events have colored their perception of life beyond the woods, which in turn has dictated their children's worldview. After the curtain of deception has been pulled back for Ivy--as much as it can be--it is likely that she would never trust her father again, and might even take steps after her mission to tear down his well-meaning house of lies.
Recommended for: Fans of a tense thriller that deals with the inherent dangers of living in a world where truth comes through a narrow filter. There are several details in The Village that may seem oblique or unclear on a first viewing, but take on a new perspective when viewed with foreknowledge of the twists to come.
There is an instance where one of Those We Don't Speak Of makes its way into town, skulking through the village, forcing those like Ivy and her sister, Kitty (Judy Greer), to hide beneath the floorboards until the threat has passed. The younger generation of Covington is ruled by their fear of red-cloaked overlords, and the threat of Those We Don't Speak Of has as much of a religion to them as any other that one might find in a sequestered community like this one. The elders behave as though the presence of monsters were merely a fact of life, and they instead speak of the towns beyond the forests with even greater trepidation. Because the elders are reluctant to share any specific information about Those We Don't Speak Of, the children rationalize ways for them to explore the world and leave the village. A nervous Lucius observes that August's son perished likely as a result of lacking medicine from "the towns", and volunteers to venture through the woods to obtain some, relying on his own "innocence" to safeguard him from assault. When Ivy makes the journey herself, she is given a pouch full of "magic rocks", intended to quell the apprehension of her two guardians feel in breaking their longstanding taboo of passing the threshold. Her companions conclude that there is something spurious about the rocks, wondering why the elders didn't use them before. Each question that the children ask of the elders is met with either vague or inconsistent replies in their deliberately archaic diction--a detail not lost on Lucius, who accuses the elders of keeping "secrets" from them. Lucius's mother, Alice (Sigourney Weaver), shares that before the elders came to Covington, they suffered under the wickedness of the towns, and tells Lucius about how his father's body was discovered to make her point. But this merely sidesteps the fact that the elders are withholding truths from their children, despite their claims that it is in the interest of preserving their progeny's innocence. When Lucius brings firewood to August--who is still grieving for his son--the elder comments about how "we ran from sorrow", while staring at a locked box kept under his stairs. It is the same kind of box which Lucius's mother and all the other elders possess, which Alice claims contains the memories of their "evil pasts". The elders intentionally obfuscate the truth from their children, despite their protestations that it is done out of love. When the lies are undone, it is confusing and shattering for them--a betrayal that evinces that they couldn't trust their children to make up their own minds about the world.
It is not by coincidence that the character of Ivy is blind, since perception represents the counterpoint to deception, which is the source of the elders' power. Even though Ivy cannot "perceive" the world as others do in Covington, she is a perceptive person. She understands the personalities of her close friends like Lucius and Noah, and she often cuts to the heart of the matter in her conversations with people. She comments that she can see the "colors" that people radiate, and teases Lucius by not telling him his color, hoping that she will incite him to be more attracted to her. She is aware that Lucius doesn't touch her anymore not because he doesn't like her, but because he is in love with her, and she hints at this often with him. Ivy seems like an unlikely choice to venture into the strange and unfamiliar woods by herself, but she is quick to understand her surroundings, which means the difference between life and death when she is confronted by a threat in the woods. Her father recognizes her intelligence and good nature, and comments that she "sees light where others see dark"; he says this shortly before revealing a huge secret to her that changes her perception of the woods surrounding the village forever. This revelation should quell her apprehension about venturing into the territory of Those We Don't Speak Of--yet the conditioning of her upbringing still lingers. Ivy's blindness is exploited--consciously or unconsciously--by her father, who gives her approval to make the journey since she will not be "tainted" by the forbidden knowledge of what lies beyond the village. Just as Ivy's perception is crucial in interpreting The Village, the elders' perception of reality is what led to the creation of their village in the first place. There are several scenes where the elders speak with the younger generation and comment about their tragic experiences prior to founding Covington. These events have colored their perception of life beyond the woods, which in turn has dictated their children's worldview. After the curtain of deception has been pulled back for Ivy--as much as it can be--it is likely that she would never trust her father again, and might even take steps after her mission to tear down his well-meaning house of lies.
Recommended for: Fans of a tense thriller that deals with the inherent dangers of living in a world where truth comes through a narrow filter. There are several details in The Village that may seem oblique or unclear on a first viewing, but take on a new perspective when viewed with foreknowledge of the twists to come.