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Village, The
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MPAA Rating: PG-13
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Entertainment: +3 1/2
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Content: +2
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M. Night Shyamalans The Village is a dramatic-romantic thriller set in an 1897 Pennsylvania village called Covington, which is in a valley surrounded by woods. The arrangement is that people of Covington are never to enter the woods, and mythical creatures that live in the woods will not enter the village. A dead animal is found skinned and bleeding in the village. Apparently someone has broken the rule, and the creatures are not pleased. As a result, the village goes on high alert and watches and waits in fear for any appearance of the creatures. A situation occurs where Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) is close to death and needs medications that they do not have in the village. A blind girl, Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is in love with Lucius, determines to take the risk and venture through the woods to the nearest town to get the needed medications. Also starring William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver.
The Village is the tale of an isolated, old-fashioned community. Despite the fear of the creatures in the woods, the nature of people is still to push the limits of danger. Boys will stand on a tree stump at night, with their backs to the woods and their arms outstretched, and fearfully wait for the creatures to come. The one who can stand there the longest is the winner. There are watchtowers where young men are on the lookout for encroaching creatures, ready to give advanced warning so that the people could find safety. The people live in fear especially when a creature enters the village and leaves behind several skinned livestock in town as a warning that someone has broken the arrangement. There is no offensive language, sexual content or graphic violence. This movies negative elements are minimal and are often created by the tension of what could happen, rather than what actually does happen. However, to a child, images of the skinned livestock may disturbing and the sight of a scary-looking creature with long teeth and claws may be frightening.
Preview Reviewer: Brian Hughes
Distributor: Touchtone
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Summary
The following categories contain objective listings of film content which contribute to the subjective numeric Content ratings posted to the left and on the Home page.
Crude Language: None
Obscene Language: None
Profanity: None
Violence: Many times mild (boys hitting each other with sticks, wrestling between boys, running from a feared entity); moderate (one man is stabbed in the stomach and then again in the chest by another man, a scary entity enters the village to pay retribution for a human entering the woods, an entity falls into a hole and is perceived to be dead); strong (startling images when dead animals are skinned and left with flies swarming around them in a garden, on a school playground and on the porch roof of a house)
Sex: None (two references to a rape that occurred many years ago nothing graphic was mentioned, just the fact that it had occurred)
Nudity: None
Sexual Dialogue/Gesture: None (several instances where young men and young women are interested in dating and marrying each other; they go through a courtship process in an honorable way)
Drugs: None
Other: The entity is scary looking and could be frightening to a child with its sharp teeth and long claws, and sharp prongs on its back; the suspense and fear of the unknown in this movie is smart and powerful (this reviewer jumped three times in his seat and got a chill/goose bumps once)
Running Time: Approx. 120 min
Intended Audience: Teens and Adults
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