WTF Happened To M. Night Shyamalan's The Village? 

Imagine seeing a movie with Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Brenden Gleason, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrian Brody and Bryce Dallas Howard and saying to yourself “Man, why aren’t there any A-Listers?”

Shymalan gets too much grief for this and Lady In The Water. I think people just wanted to stick him horror and never let him try anything else. Its a shame because these are beautiful films.

I’ve always loved The Village. Great setting with some spooky moments and interesting characters. Love the cinematography and music in this one especially-definitely enhances the ambiance by a mile. Sad that people didn’t take well to it but it’s great for what it is.

If Disney had marketed The Village as a mystery-thriller and not a horror flick, it would have fared better. This and The Lady in the Lake are fun and intriguing films.

M. Night Shyamalan is awesome. I don't like all his stuff, but I like how he operates and I love when he has the freedom to do whatever he wants. I hope he never stops making movies.

I always chuckle when I see this movie get hate. It's one of my favorite movies, and the scene on the porch always strikes me as very romantic. I dream of having a moment like that myself one day.

I adore this movie. I think it's his best followed by Signs.

The Village was awesome.

I always loved The Village. I swear I could listen to William Hurt monologue all day long.

Gorgeous cinematography. Beautiful and detailed production design. Top-notch cast. And one of the best, most haunting scores ever written for film by the great James Newton Howard, performed by the incredible violinist Hillary Hahn. But sure, a misstep. The real twist was never really the modern day setting, but the Psycho-esque protagonist shift mid-way-through and the sick reality of the lengths the village elders would go in order to maintain their control. As someone who grew up within and around fundamentalist religion, that hit home. I was a kid when this film came out, and I bought into the Shyamalan hype surrounding “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs.” And, personally-speaking, “The Village” didn’t disappoint. I love this film, and it meant a lot as to me.

Saw this in the theater and immediately purchased when available. Regardless of the naysayers, I have enjoyed M. Night's career.

Saw it in theater as a teenager. I loved it and still do. I think it holds up.

This is literally in my top films. I love this movie, and I feel like it's a fantastic introductory film for younger kids who want to get into horror. There's nothing sexual, not much gore, no swearing. It is a safe film to watch with like a 10 year who isn't ready for the bigger horror films just yet. But it's also just a really good movie. It shaped my 11 year old self and deserves way more credit.

Most people I've ever spoken to really anjoyed The Village. It's a lovely morality tale.

I love this movie! I loved the acting in the movie and how it was filmed. The scene when Bryce Howard finds Phoenix on the porch in the middle of the night is magic. As well as William Hurt’s speech to the other elders about his daughter being driven by love. It’s just a beautiful movie. The twists that don’t add up for people or they guessed it or whatever doesn’t take anything away for me of the quality and art of the film.

In hindsight, Shyamalan directing Wuthering Heights the way he initially wanted to would have been interesting.

Yeah, he's had some clunkers, but Shyamalan has a beautiful eye for cinematography, directed some of the best performances by talented actors, and incorporates meaningful themes about faith and the strength of the human spirit in his scripts. He may be many things, but M. Knight has talent and vision as a filmmaker.

I will defend this movie to the death. It is possibly my favorite Shyamalan movie, and I'm pretty sure it's at least the one that I've watched the most. It has an excellent cast, beautiful cinematography, a beautiful score, an interesting story, and a twist that I didn't see coming. The experiment that the villagers engage in is something that I myself might be interested in doing. The film also is rich thematically and serves as a thoughtful meditation on the nature of innocence: What innocence is and whether it can be reclaimed once lost.

Unpasteurized milk? Nope. The village is awesome! Period.

One of my favourite directors

I love The Village, but I wish that the monster reveal was later. The fight in the woods wasn’t as terrifying as it could have been. As the audience it would have been a great at the end, along with the time reveal.

The Village is among my top ten favorite movies of all time

4:28 “popcorn movie friendly” while showing a clip from unbreakable. Have you ever seen that movie? It’s not in any way a popcorn movie. It’s very slow and not at all the way mainstream movies are presented.

The thing with Shyamalan's movies is that you only need to watch them once

The only movie I ever walked out on. The second William hurt said there's no monsters in the woods and they sent a blind Bryce Dallas Howard for help for Joaquin Phoenix because Adrian Brody stabbed him.

This was another one of these movies where I was really surprised to hear that audiences didn't repond to it well. It realer me in, when I watched it the first time.

The Village got short shifted by it's own Studio with it's extremely misleading trailers. The ending would've been just fine if the audience wasn't set up to expect something else entirely...

Would’ve been way cooler if the monsters and the pact between the villagers was real…

He has made some pretty good smaller movies since then. The visit, split, knock at the Cabin. Old was pretty good too. My least favourite though has to be the lady in the water and the happening my god😂

I LOVED this movie. So good.

I hated the village the first time watching it. I thought the "twist" ending was lame. However when i watched it knowing the ending for a second time i found it really enjoyable. Ever since then i have watched it every chance i get.

Interesting that all of Shyamalan's films are about Faith.

I really enjoyed this in the theatre and all these years later. The soundtrack, the swerve, the acting. Was good. I'll fight for this one.

After the sixth sense, my first guess was that the plot twist was they being in modern era hiding deep in the woods.

Elizabeth Olsen would be a natural for a Shyamalan movie.

Saw this in theater and hated it. Plus i figured out what the twists was going to be pretty quickly.

The Sixth Sense And Split Are My Two Favorite Shyamalan Films.

One of my favorite films of all time.

I remember reading “Running Out Of Time” in 7th grade, thinking the book copied this movie. I was mad when I realized the book came first.

I don't understand why people didn't appreciate the twist (which seems to be the biggest point of contention). Is it only because it ended up not being supernatural? I feel like the fact that the twist in this film is actually grounded and plausible makes it that much greater. I fortunately never had the twist spoiled for me and only just saw the movie a few years ago; and I really liked it. Definitely didn't deserve the hate. I feel that it will be more appreciated in the future; but only time will tell.

Really guys? MNS was a bigger name than Sigourney Weaver, or Adrian Brody at that time? I don't think so. The general consensus around about The Village that I remember when it came out, was that the twist was too easily guessed, the script was too corny and the payoff too weak by the time it came. It was the film that signaled the director's signature plot twists had become predictable, his understated style was growing stale with moviegoers and that audiences didn't react well to having their chains pointlessly yanked by egotistical movie wunderkind.

Went and saw this in the theater opening week, and within 5 mins, I turned to my wife and said, "This is happening in today's world." It was the most obvious twist.

I have enjoyed most of his movies. Even the happening, I found entertaining and didn't mind the twist

The Village is definitely underappreciated!

The twist could've worked better if Shyamalan had added a scene with Kevin in the beginning of the movie He was doing some patrolling when he heard some noises from the creatures, and then cut to Ivy hearing the noises This would make the audience believe the two characters were from different times It would be a nice variation of the Kuleshov effect

OMG the reception this movie got was not warranted. Having revisited the film, it's EASILY up there with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable as one of Shyamalan's best films. It was expected to be this groundbreaking horror film when it's actually a dark love story. I know marketing played a role in that. It's so well shot, acted and written. The twist is still a nice surprise. Love this movie.

If you haven't seen the Village of Signs there both available on Disney+ UK your welcome.

An incredibly under-rated masterpiece with a stellar cast, inspired cinematography, artfully directed and edited slow-building tension and one of the most hauntingly beautiful scores in cinema history. It was poorly/inaccurately promoted and too many people had bought in on the 'yeah, but what's the twist' so hard it kept them from being able to appreciate the film itself.

I always loved the village for its atmosphere, the beautifully, eerie music, thoughtful, setting, and even romance.

I like the twist wih the village. I was younger when I saw it. It had me intrigued. I do also like signs too.

I agree, the stabbing scene was probably the most disturbing one I've ever seen in a movie, despite the lack of gore.

This movie had so much talent involved, a shame M. Night's ego was bigger than his talent

Till today this movie is re-watchable. The Village could have been released as a TV series. It's slow burn but the journey towards the unknown was interesting. I was never disappointed about the absence of real monster (in fact that would have been a typical horror movie) but the story of this movie was about how humans always have to end up fighting their own shortcoming (monsters). The plots and twist towards that conclusion was simply awesome. That's why this movie can still be remembered. The love story between the couple was heartening and the feeling of being not loved and hatred was very well depicted in the movie. As an audience this film from start to finish brings you through all the emotions. This is what good films about. It should make you think and feel. Also I would say that the elderly who created the village wanted to protect their children over the rising actual crime is really acceptable. I wished they had an episode about the elderly and their individual stories. That would have been awesome. Overall The Village is simply a very good movie.

I went back to the theatre a second time, to re-watch the film after I knew how it ended. In my top fav movies of all time.

If I’m not mistaken he did the tv adaptation of wayward pines as well. I was disappointed it got cancelled as I enjoyed it. Matt Damon asked to be killed off which was disappointing.

I see and remmeber the talent in this movie now I gotta go rewatch

I remember him saying he explained this film as a period love story to the production company. But they chose to market it as a monster horror film. That false expectation hurt the reception of the film.

Without A-Lister's at the time.. crazy the awards alot of the cast would go on to win. I also remember watching it in theaters and leaving like, was that it 😅

you should do wtf happened to the maze runner passengers rango Pompeii and poseidon 2006

Shyamalan has made so many good films. Great director.

I saw this in theaters as a kid and left after like 20 mins in lol

I remember seeing this in theaters and actually appreciating the twist at the end, but I think the ending of signs really affected this movie. People’s expectations changed from the “twist” ending to the, “what does the monster look like” - especially after seeing the aliens in signs IMO

This was the first movie in my life I saw in theaters and demanded my money back. I have avoided everything with his name on it every since.

I'm not a Shymalan fan, but I loved The Village. From what I've understood, people who expected another thriller with a wild plot twist were disappointed and hated it (and I think even M. Night tried too hard to cater to this audience by unnecessarily complicating the "twist") but if you view the film as a love story first, and are invested in that aspect, it becomes a much more enjoyable experience, I found

I saw The Village in theater and had no idea of the ending. I love unexpected twists in movies, and overall this was a good movie. People who didn't like it are shallow and need to stick to superhero flicks. Shutter Island with Leo Dicaprio is another great twist film that I consider similar.

I still watch Marky Marks happening 😂 did people not like the village? I thought it was shot great and hits from all angles

I always enjoyed The Village. I know many people didn't dig it, but I found it to be an interesting story about lies. The lies we tell others (ostensibly to protect them), the lies we tell ourselves (to justify the lies we tell others we think we're protecting). It's a story about craven cowardice, the cowardice of the elders who ran away from the world, vowing never to return, and regarding themselves as guardians of some kind of purity or innocence. In fact what they were doing was morally reprehensible, raising an entire generation of their children in a world sequestered away and lying to them about the outside world to keep them terrified and isolated. They were prepared to let a murderer go unpunished and let an innocent man die all to protect their little Eden. But then, of course, it's a story of great courage in the face of that cowardice, and how that bravery, that stout-heartedness, allowed one of them to not only save the life of a gravely injured member of their community, but also to forgive the elders for their timid pusillanimity which drove their duplicitous fraud. I often thought that a sequel to The Village (this was a fanfic spec script I wrote) would feature a detective with the Pennsylvania State Police's Bureau of Investigation, hearing rumors about this place, and finding his way back to the village, shattering the whole pretense to pieces. The village members would now have to contend with the choice of whether to continue their life in fearful isolation, or to go out and join the world.

His twists are good bc he wraps you up in a different story so you are watching for that narrative rather than watching for the twist

Actually remember seeing this in theaters. For the amount of talent it is a really bad movie, but not his worst that goes to Avatar

6:08 yeah she trained with Daredevil, Zataoichi, and cop. H. Stinkmeaner. Which is why she made it through the woods so easily. Blind means you gain superpowers, right?

I liked this movie while it was running. But once it was over, I had so many questions and objections about circumstances in the plot that my enjoyment didn't last long. I still feel that way -- not willing to watch it again, and I usually watch movies I like multiple times.

Welcome back Tyler Nichols 😊

0:56 it's so interesting because I never really thought about it before, but he is the only director/filmmaker that draws me in to see a movie solely because he made it

I went into this totally blind not even paying any attention to the fact that it was Shyamalan, and I actually enjoyed it. Expectations can really hinder enjoyment.

The music and the insane beauty of bryce make this movie special.

At the end, there's a photo of the family when they lived outside the village. Joaquin Phoenix's character is in the photo as a baby. That's why his gut always told him there was a world outside of the village. He subconsciously remembered it.

The description of how love can overcome any obstacle put in front of Ivy is too overlooked.

The village has phenomenal lighting, tone, music, cinematography, framing and the acting is great as well as the writing being air tight for the story that it is. Now the twist may have been a bit silly but every theme is consistent and every narrative point has some execution for its set ups. Story wise its about a 6 out of 10 but everything else is at minimum a 9 for what it is.

Some of the few visionaries who stick to their original film making , mortgaging his house even, to self finance hi work.❤❤❤

It’s crazy looking back at this and seeing such an incredible cast! RIP William Hurt.

My #1 favorite movie of all time. Absolutely incredible.

I like every single movie he's done, even the happening. They all have beautiful messages.

I loved The Village and Lady In The Water. My thing with M. Night is that his first few films were magical and had amazing stories, but after that they became vanilla and eventually, diet Coke (The Happening, etc).

"soon after shooting commenced, the entire village was taken down" - you sure about that sentence?

Speaking only for myself, I enjoyed both movies. I loved the storyline and how the plot unfolded. There doesn’t always have to be some evil monster or blood and gore for a movie to be enjoyable. Good and great movies have an interesting story to tell.

I still have the DVD it was a strange movie but the story explained why “ The Villagers “ were in the “ 1800s” it was really sad that it was the elders way of coping with terrible tragedy.

Love your videos! It fascinates me to see what happens behind the scenes and how they get to the final product. Especially when it's my absolute favorite genre. Thankyou for the awesome content ☺️👍🏻 Its been years since Ive seen this and I honestly don't remember much of the story. Definitely worth a rewatch though, Im a big horror & a Shyamalan fan. & Last but definitely not least... Joaquin Phoenix 😊🩷

I have only walked out of two movies and this was one of them.

I remember watching the movie in theaters when I first came out. I was thinking this was a masterpiece. I still love this movie today. I don’t know why I get so much hate.

I loved this movie - and the soundtrack is STELLAR

Unbreakable is my favorite superhero movie, no doubt

I knew what the twist was from the way they wrote the first trailer.

The boom mic. Kept entering the shot. They edited that from the DVD.

Signs is one of my all time favorites. Idc about the stupid water weakness. Great movie

i was young an bummed out when i finally saw this movie. i was 14 or 15

I think what disappointed me with this movie was you found out too soon the creatures were fake . I admit it's been years since I seen it and maybe need to give it a rewatch

It was ok

I guest the twist of this one during the opening credits. Lol

To me, the implications of what this group of people will do to manipulate their children into believing a certain way of life is infinitely more scary and sick in the head than if this had just turned into a "oh there are monsters in the woods and we have to fight them" type of thriller.

This was filmed up the road from my high school. I had no idea the truth until the character found found the photograph. Blew my mind up, epic twist!