If you’ve been on social media lately, you might’ve noticed a surprising movie trending—not a new release, but M. Night Shyamalan’s once-maligned 2004 thriller. Now, that’s par for the course with Shyamalan. Trap, Old, and especially The Lady in the Water remain polarizing genre pictures. They have plenty of fans, but just as many detractors.
The spark for this burgeoning classic came from film journalist Brandon Streussnig (@BrndnStrssng), who posted on X:
“Rewatched The Village last night, sorta solidified itself into M Night’s upper echelon for me, but man, the scene where Ivy is searching for Lucius’s hand amidst the chaos of the village trying to find who Noah stabbed f*cked me up BAD. Maybe the most moving thing he’s done.”
The post was later quoted by writer Shea Serrano, who called for a “critical reevaluation” of the film. Suddenly, everyone was weighing in on the movie that, nearly two decades ago, critics dismissed as a major disaster.
When The Village debuted in 2004, Roger Ebert gave it one star, calling it a “colossal miscalculation,” though he admitted Shyamalan was “a director of considerable skill who evokes stories out of moods.” A.O. Scott at The New York Times was harsher. He called out the film’s “ridiculousness” and accused Shyamalan of having “sloppy and obvious” ideas.
The Village tells the story of the inhabitants of an isolated 19th-century village. They live in fear of the red-cloaked creatures in the surrounding woods. When Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) is stabbed by another villager out of jealousy, Elder Edward Walker (William Hurt) sends his blind daughter, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard), to gather life-saving medications from one of the towns just beyond the woods. It’s a dangerous task, but Edward believes she’s the only one who can do it.
Watch the trailer below:
I was eight when it came out. I remember watching it in high school Sociology class (of all places) and being struck by how sad it was. Like The Sixth Sense (1999), The Village is a deeply emotional movie about grief, isolation, and the lengths people go to protect themselves. It reminds me a lot of the short story, “The Red Bow” by George Saunders, which was published in 2003 (it’s no surprise that both of these came out after the September 11th attacks).
In the midst of the ongoing Shyamalan renaissance (fueled in part by 2024’s Trap, a film I personally think is near-perfect), it feels like the right moment to reconsider The Village. Shyamalan may not always get it right, and yes, some of his movies are kind of silly, but he’s one of the few mainstream directors still committed to telling original, entertaining stories right now.
And if you love The Village and also think it deserves a revisit, let me know. You can find me @ashjenexi on Instagram and X.
Categorized: News
