Theory on "The Village"

[beastieben21]

Hey boys and girls. While looking in the bible, I happened upon a very interesting set of scriptures:

MAR 8:23 And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.

or, a modern translation would render this:

And he took the blind man by the hand, brought him outside the village, and, having spit upon his eyes, he laid his hands upon him and began to ask him "Do you see anything?" An the man looked up and began saying "I see men, because I observe what seem to be trees, but they are walking about." Then he laid his hands again upon the man's eyes, and the man saw clearly, and he was restored, and he was seeing everything distinctly. So he sent him off home, saying "But do not enter into the village."


Alright...this could be a compete coincidence. But these scriptures deal not only with blindness (Howard's character in the film is blind) and a theory that I've heard floating around the internet about tree people (trees walking about) but also mention specifically "The Village" in modern translation. Now, I know title was changed from "The Woods" and there's a chance this is just a big coincidence, but Night is a filmmaker who uses religious undertones often, so it wouldn't surprise me if some of the film was based on this. Again, just speculation, and maybe it's already been brought up, but interesting nonetheless.

[adamjohnson]

Im more willing to bet its werewolves than... ents.

[ANavissi500]

I think that it is possible. I think Shamalyn has a LOT of religious undertones in his movies, esp. Signs - that whole movie was about a crisis of faith, not about alien attacks (so back off that they came to a water-filled planet)

But I digress...

I think that at the very least, he is familiar with the passage.

[bondish]

Anything's possible at this stage. I can't wait to find out what happens. I like the iden that the story has some relation to the story of Little Red Riding Hood and that the creatures are werewolves, not elders.

[bondish]

crap. double post. delete this.

[scottish-movie-freak]

Official MPAA rating for The Village:

PG13 for Scenes of Violence and Frightening Situations.

Just thought I should share.

:)

from rulesofthevillage.movies.go.com

[APzombie]

Nothing is out of the question with M. Night Shyamalan.

[moviemuffin]

Isn't his religious symbolism usually more figural than specific to any particular scripture? Dunno for sure, but that was my first response.

Anywho, when I see the previews on this one I find myself hoping to GAWD it's not any of the above but a psychological/social thriller with strong similarities to The Lottery. THAT would be a cool movie.

Plus every time I see William Hurt I get a "the gods of plot are muttering" feeling.

[Slim_JGE]

Originally posted by scottish-movie-freak
Official MPAA rating for The Village:

PG13 for Scenes of Violence and Frightening Situations.

Just thought I should share.

:)

from rulesofthevillage.movies.go.com

Damn it!

[Horror whore]

I just read a possible ending spoiler and..... :eek: If what I read is true, than this movie will be ruined. Wow, I seriously hope that it was just a fan theory or something. Yikes.

Here is the theory: someone makes it through the woods to find that it is the present day. The village is located on a rich man's land and he hires people to dress as creatures and keep them in the village.

:eek: :rolleyes:

[adamjohnson]

Originally posted by Horror whore
I just read a possible ending spoiler and..... :eek: If what I read is true, than this movie will be ruined. Wow, I seriously hope that it was just a fan theory or something. Yikes.

:eek: :rolleyes:

We know what youre talking about, and Im certian its wrong. He likes twist endings but hes not stupid.

[scottish-movie-freak]

Originally posted by adamjohnson
We know what youre talking about, and Im certian its wrong. He likes twist endings but hes not stupid.

Can either of you give me a link to this twist ending? For some reason, I want to read it (and I'll most likely end up hating myself for it).

Thanks! :)

[Moviefan1234]

Originally posted by scottish-movie-freak
Can either of you give me a link to this twist ending? For some reason, I want to read it (and I'll most likely end up hating myself for it).


http://www.joblo.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=76799&highlight=The+Village

There ya go. I'm sure its not true, but I guess you never know.

[adamjohnson]

Actually, horror whore's post has the spolier. Highlight to read.

Figured that one out when I quoted.

[BananaDancer]

i'd find it hard to believe that spoiler. m. night has been more creative than that. i'd feel pretty confident saying that wont' be the ending.

(i didn't want to read it, but couldn't help myself)

[Darth Dzikowski]

Are we talkin "Crazy White Folk" spoiler? If so, I think Night deliberately put that in so if the script did get online no one would know the true ending. Having the cast back for last minute reshoots in late May is another clue to that fact, they definately shot the ending during that time so it would be harder to leak.

That's just my opinion.

[jolanar]

I got the impression is was just gonna be these crazy psycho indians that were out in the woods. Hmm, didn't even cross my mind that it might be something else. I can't wait to see this though, I love his movies.

[Squid Vicious]

I really wish people would realize that there's more to M. Night Shyamalan's films than a friggin' twist ending.

[scottish-movie-freak]

Originally posted by Moviefan1234
http://www.joblo.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=76799&highlight=The+Village

There ya go. I'm sure its not true, but I guess you never know.

I need to ask: in that topic, why was every 'the' in red?

I must be missing something because I cant be that dim...can I?

[Moviefan1234]

Originally posted by scottish-movie-freak
I need to ask: in that topic, why was every 'the' in red?

I must be missing something because I cant be that dim...can I?

I don't know...it must be you. ;)

Nah, actually because I did a search for 'The Village.'

[bondish]

Creative Screenwriting Magazine, Volume 11 #4.

This review is based on a 2003 production draft of the script's original title, The Woods.

It’s sad to report that The Village script, as written, marks a new low point in M. Night Shyamalan’s screenwriting career. Sad only because everyone knows he has great talent, but somehow seems not to have brought it to this draft. While many of its blemishes will be cleaned up by the film’s release, even a thorough scrubbing couldn’t possibly wash way all of the deep-rooted story problems here. The Village script fails because it features poorly realized characters, dialogue, and story. This is the sixth script that Shyamalan has written and directed, and it seems he’s fallen too much in love with his own material to put the hard work necessary into elevating it- common ditch that most auteurs eventually fall into, and only a few ever managed to escape.

The Village begins in the year 1896 with the death of a child that we later learn might have been saved if proper medicine had been available. But the villagers aren’t allowed to enter the nearby forbidden Covington Woods and head into town for feat of attack from mysterious creatures known only has “Those we don’t speak of.” This Amish-like society fears cities and considers them equally as dangerous as the beasts that lurk the woods. Eventually the protagonist, Lucius, suffers a near-fatal injury and his blind fiancée, Ivy, makes the dangerous journey into the woods so that she can procure medicine from the nearest city to save him.

Yes folks, you guessed it- there’s a twist at the end. Shyamalan seems incapable of writing anything that doesn’t include an outrageous final twist, and The Village produces his weakest ending to date. The Sixth Sense ending wowed audiences worldwide because very few of them had ever seen Jacob’s Ladder or The Twilight Zone episode “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” (also Best Short Subject Academy Award winner in 1964). Even though the concept had been popularized in those previous films, Shyamalan’s moody script and steady direction made his film successful and deserves credit.

But he’s become a victim of his own success and now employs twists for twists’ sake at the end of all his films. In Unbreakable we learn that Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson are respectively real-world superheroes and super-villains. Many people rejected that twist, as absurd as it was, it had more honesty than Shyamalan’s subsequent turns. In Signs the twist relied on a Highway to Heaven-styled schmaltzy message from beyond the grave as Mel Gibson’s remembrance of his dying wife’s final words helped his family defeat the aliens invading their house. Forget the fact that these aqua-fearing aliens invaded a planet covered with 90% water- one special family learned how to believe in God while battling aliens!

With The Village Shyamalan tries to pitch his best twister at you, but you can see it coming if you’ve been paying attention. And you’d have to be paying attention because Shyamalan forgot to mask his twist under any sort of compelling narrative or characters. Think about it- a backwards society that’s cut off from the rest of the worlds that repeatedly mentions their hatred of modern cities and clings to beliefs of simpler times-one that forbids its youth from exiting the village’s borders for fear of an attack by forest bests. It practically telegraphs the ending series of twists. For the first fifty pages these beasts are never seen and only spoken about. Then on page fifty a sentry triggers an alarm, and we see nothing but shadows and folks hiding and crying. This repeats a few times until the beasts mysteriously skin all the villager’s animals and hang them around town. You’d hope it’s leading to confrontation, but the changes of that are bleak.

Then Shyamalan makes the biggest blunder a writer can make in handling suspense: he tells you the answer to one of the script’s mysteries. Tells, not shows. The first twist occurs on page 96 (out of 125) when the blind Ivy is told by an elder that there are no real beasts, and that it’s all been a part of an elaborate scheme by the elders to keep their happy community cut off from the rest of the world. This was done in order to preserve their innocent way of life. The guilt-ridden Edward tells Ivy so she can save her true love. By telling, rather than showing, Shyamalan takes away any sense of discovery and drama that the audience might have enjoyed after being led down a dead end for 90 minutes. While The Sixth Sense ultimately contained real ghosts, and Signs had aliens, it’s a letdown to learn there are no real bests here. Still, it’s expected because the script does such a good job of hiding them that by page 96 they’re too boring and unbelievable to really exist anyway.

When the final question is raised about how none of the elders skinned the villager’s animals and maybe there are actually beasts, it’s clear that the script doesn’t bother with that subplot. After sending a blind girl into the woods to find a nearby town for medicine, the script lowers itself again by having its secondary beast turn out to be the mentally retarded character Noah, who childishly longs for Ivy’s unrequited love. He’s apparently found the elders’ beast costumes and runs around causing his own ruckus trying to scare Ivy.

Ivy should know it’s Noah because she claimed to be able to see people’s auras earlier in the script, but now suddenly Noah’s bad costume hides his aura? It’s inconsistent. But even after outwitting Noah, Shyamalan’s game of Twister hasn’t ended yet. As Ivy blindly stumbles around, we’re left with plenty of time to think about where she’s going, and all evidence suggests that this cultish, backward society probably isn’t stuck in 1896, leaving little surprise when Ivy stumbles onto a highway in 2004. It’s just another bad twist for twist’s sake, seemingly an apologetic one, because maybe Shyamalan (subconsciously) knows how weak the previous two twists were.

Shyamalan constantly attempts a Hitchcock style but has sadly forgotten the most classic Hichtcockian lessons: don’t telegraph your twist, cover it up with a Macguffin- the plot device used to distract your audience from the hidden truth. In this script the Macguffin is the mysterious group of beasts. They’re what should focus attention so completely that we could never imagine a Truman Show-type reveal. But Shyamalan did such a lazy job of only suggesting the beasts that there’s plenty of time to let one’s mind wander through various monologues and the clunky “old speak” employed throughout. If The Village had any sort of action, adventure, discovery, horror or real romance rather than restrained romance maybe we might have been invested enough in the story to attain a feeling similar to the end of the original Planet of the Apes when Heston realizes he’s been on Earth the whole time. But since Shyamalan forgot to construct a real story behind his twists, that entire house of cards has already fallen long before they occur. The Hitch-cockian protagonist switch, a la Psych, from Lucius to Ivy kind of works, but both characters read so blandly that it ultimately doesn’t matter. The silliest reveal comes in the final pages when one of the elder’s locked wooden boxes is opened to reveal a pair of blue jeans. The boxes weren’t too important in this draft, but hopefully something better than blue jeans will emerge from them by the final film.

Is this the end of M. Night Shyamalan? Of course not. His past successes will continue to provide future opportunities. Shyamalan is still a talented writer who has written a very readable script, but one incapable of ever getting produced unless someone of his stature fell in love with it. But who could fall in love with a faux horror script that lacks the honestly-earned scares? This draft was devoid of a strong protagonist, strong secondary characters, or compelling character motivations. Narrative experimentation is always encouraged, but never fruitful, when the writing behind it remains lazy. Hopefully Shyamalan has done an inspired rewrite and all the scripts flaws have been erased. But as for this particular draft, if it were a spec from an unknown writer, it wouldn’t sell, because the writer has forgotten how to entertain and has become transfixed with finding the next chic twist.

[scottish-movie-freak]

Originally posted by bondish
Creative Screenwriting Magazine, Volume 11 #4.

This review is based on a 2003 production draft of the script's original title, The Woods.

It’s sad to report that The Village script, as written, marks a new low point in M. Night Shyamalan’s screenwriting career. Sad only because everyone knows he has great talent, but somehow seems not to have brought it to this draft. While many of its blemishes will be cleaned up by the film’s release, even a thorough scrubbing couldn’t possibly wash way all of the deep-rooted story problems here. The Village script fails because it features poorly realized characters, dialogue, and story. This is the sixth script that Shyamalan has written and directed, and it seems he’s fallen too much in love with his own material to put the hard work necessary into elevating it- common ditch that most auteurs eventually fall into, and only a few ever managed to escape.

The Village begins in the year 1896 with the death of a child that we later learn might have been saved if proper medicine had been available. But the villagers aren’t allowed to enter the nearby forbidden Covington Woods and head into town for feat of attack from mysterious creatures known only has “Those we don’t speak of.” This Amish-like society fears cities and considers them equally as dangerous as the beasts that lurk the woods. Eventually the protagonist, Lucius, suffers a near-fatal injury and his blind fiancée, Ivy, makes the dangerous journey into the woods so that she can procure medicine from the nearest city to save him.

Yes folks, you guessed it- there’s a twist at the end. Shyamalan seems incapable of writing anything that doesn’t include an outrageous final twist, and The Village produces his weakest ending to date. The Sixth Sense ending wowed audiences worldwide because very few of them had ever seen Jacob’s Ladder or The Twilight Zone episode “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” (also Best Short Subject Academy Award winner in 1964). Even though the concept had been popularized in those previous films, Shyamalan’s moody script and steady direction made his film successful and deserves credit.

But he’s become a victim of his own success and now employs twists for twists’ sake at the end of all his films. In Unbreakable we learn that Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson are respectively real-world superheroes and super-villains. Many people rejected that twist, as absurd as it was, it had more honesty than Shyamalan’s subsequent turns. In Signs the twist relied on a Highway to Heaven-styled schmaltzy message from beyond the grave as Mel Gibson’s remembrance of his dying wife’s final words helped his family defeat the aliens invading their house. Forget the fact that these aqua-fearing aliens invaded a planet covered with 90% water- one special family learned how to believe in God while battling aliens!

With The Village Shyamalan tries to pitch his best twister at you, but you can see it coming if you’ve been paying attention. And you’d have to be paying attention because Shyamalan forgot to mask his twist under any sort of compelling narrative or characters. Think about it- a backwards society that’s cut off from the rest of the worlds that repeatedly mentions their hatred of modern cities and clings to beliefs of simpler times-one that forbids its youth from exiting the village’s borders for fear of an attack by forest bests. It practically telegraphs the ending series of twists. For the first fifty pages these beasts are never seen and only spoken about. Then on page fifty a sentry triggers an alarm, and we see nothing but shadows and folks hiding and crying. This repeats a few times until the beasts mysteriously skin all the villager’s animals and hang them around town. You’d hope it’s leading to confrontation, but the changes of that are bleak.

Then Shyamalan makes the biggest blunder a writer can make in handling suspense: he tells you the answer to one of the script’s mysteries. Tells, not shows. The first twist occurs on page 96 (out of 125) when the blind Ivy is told by an elder that there are no real beasts, and that it’s all been a part of an elaborate scheme by the elders to keep their happy community cut off from the rest of the world. This was done in order to preserve their innocent way of life. The guilt-ridden Edward tells Ivy so she can save her true love. By telling, rather than showing, Shyamalan takes away any sense of discovery and drama that the audience might have enjoyed after being led down a dead end for 90 minutes. While The Sixth Sense ultimately contained real ghosts, and Signs had aliens, it’s a letdown to learn there are no real bests here. Still, it’s expected because the script does such a good job of hiding them that by page 96 they’re too boring and unbelievable to really exist anyway.

When the final question is raised about how none of the elders skinned the villager’s animals and maybe there are actually beasts, it’s clear that the script doesn’t bother with that subplot. After sending a blind girl into the woods to find a nearby town for medicine, the script lowers itself again by having its secondary beast turn out to be the mentally retarded character Noah, who childishly longs for Ivy’s unrequited love. He’s apparently found the elders’ beast costumes and runs around causing his own ruckus trying to scare Ivy.

Ivy should know it’s Noah because she claimed to be able to see people’s auras earlier in the script, but now suddenly Noah’s bad costume hides his aura? It’s inconsistent. But even after outwitting Noah, Shyamalan’s game of Twister hasn’t ended yet. As Ivy blindly stumbles around, we’re left with plenty of time to think about where she’s going, and all evidence suggests that this cultish, backward society probably isn’t stuck in 1896, leaving little surprise when Ivy stumbles onto a highway in 2004. It’s just another bad twist for twist’s sake, seemingly an apologetic one, because maybe Shyamalan (subconsciously) knows how weak the previous two twists were.

Shyamalan constantly attempts a Hitchcock style but has sadly forgotten the most classic Hichtcockian lessons: don’t telegraph your twist, cover it up with a Macguffin- the plot device used to distract your audience from the hidden truth. In this script the Macguffin is the mysterious group of beasts. They’re what should focus attention so completely that we could never imagine a Truman Show-type reveal. But Shyamalan did such a lazy job of only suggesting the beasts that there’s plenty of time to let one’s mind wander through various monologues and the clunky “old speak” employed throughout. If The Village had any sort of action, adventure, discovery, horror or real romance rather than restrained romance maybe we might have been invested enough in the story to attain a feeling similar to the end of the original Planet of the Apes when Heston realizes he’s been on Earth the whole time. But since Shyamalan forgot to construct a real story behind his twists, that entire house of cards has already fallen long before they occur. The Hitch-cockian protagonist switch, a la Psych, from Lucius to Ivy kind of works, but both characters read so blandly that it ultimately doesn’t matter. The silliest reveal comes in the final pages when one of the elder’s locked wooden boxes is opened to reveal a pair of blue jeans. The boxes weren’t too important in this draft, but hopefully something better than blue jeans will emerge from them by the final film.

Is this the end of M. Night Shyamalan? Of course not. His past successes will continue to provide future opportunities. Shyamalan is still a talented writer who has written a very readable script, but one incapable of ever getting produced unless someone of his stature fell in love with it. But who could fall in love with a faux horror script that lacks the honestly-earned scares? This draft was devoid of a strong protagonist, strong secondary characters, or compelling character motivations. Narrative experimentation is always encouraged, but never fruitful, when the writing behind it remains lazy. Hopefully Shyamalan has done an inspired rewrite and all the scripts flaws have been erased. But as for this particular draft, if it were a spec from an unknown writer, it wouldn’t sell, because the writer has forgotten how to entertain and has become transfixed with finding the next chic twist.

One still has to remain hopeful. I mean, there was all those reports of the ending being reshot so I seriously doubt that this will still be the ending we see on the big screen.

Shit, I shouldn't have read that report. The temptation was too great!

[echo_bravo]

OH....DEAR...GOD!!! Are you fucking kidding me?!

IF that is what the movie is going to be like, then there might be a pissed off mob (lead by me) standing outside of M. Night Shyamalan's mansion

[MadsenOMC]

Now, I don't agree with everything Moriarty says over at AICN. In fact I don't know that we agree on much. But he wrote a script review of this a long time ago and had nothing nice to say about it. Said the ending in particular was awful beyond words and would have people calling for Shyamalan's head. The man's ego has gotten out of control, IMO.

[APzombie]

Guys, the ending you all are thinking about is a diversion set up to hide the real one, do you honestly think the ending to a Night film would make its way on the internet seven months before the film even comes out?

[echo_bravo]

APZOmbie, I hope not.

[Squid Vicious]

I swear to God if I see another post saying "OHMAGAWD!!! IF THAT'S THE ENDING, I'M GONNA FUCKIN KILL M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN!!!", I'm gonna....gonna.....uh.......

Well, I guess there's nothing I can do. But I can complain about it.

[Cunning Visions]

According to AICN the people who have seen the film at press screenings are hotly debating it. They either loved it or completely loathed it. Also seems the twist that's been leaked IS the ending of the film. Remember though this is from AICN and there still are no reviews yet..so take it with a grain of salt for now.

[scottish-movie-freak]

Originally posted by Cunning Visions
Also seems the twist that's been leaked IS the ending of the film.

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!

I read somewhere that after reading the script, Sigourney Weaver suffered from nightmares for 2 weeks...

I'm sorry but there is nothing scary about that ending.

[Squid Vicious]

You know, I think the idea of the movie actually being set in the year 2004 could've been interesting, if pulled off right. The problem is, a lot of people seem to have this unhealthy obsession with trying to find out the twist ending of M. Night Shyamalan's films and they have such high expectations that there is absolutely no way they'll be pleased. They don't view Shyamalan's movies as movies; they view them as puzzles.

[moviemuffin]

Did you folks read the big "reveal" in Sunday's paper about the making-of scam Sci Fi and Shyamalan agreed to do as a publicity stunt?

I dunno, but I think if you have to work this hard to promote interest in your film it must be a piece of absolute shit. EVERY one of his movies interests me, then I see it, and find it to be sloppily written, full of really huge plot holes, and completely predictable in spite of all the "surprise" hoopla.