M. Night Shyamalan’s movies have become like car wrecks. Even though you know exactly what’s going to happen, you still can’t help but watch. You might even find yourself acting surprised. It’s like a big serious pantomime.

This movie starts out kind of lost. I found myself thinking things like, “And why do I care?” But the opening third for Shyamalan is all about setting the little pieces up.

I jumped plenty, and I love movie that makes me jump. The first encounter between Ivy and “the creature” in the woods is only the second time I’ve been truly freaked out by a movie this year (first was Christian Slater’s encounter with liquid nitrogen in Mindhunters ... shudder) and I love a movie that can scare me like that.

It turns out to be all about fear and the power of fear, and of course there’s a twist; but the real twist comes, I think, in the form of a sweet irony that makes you ask, “is all this really necessary?” Yes: the outside world is bad and all, and worth escaping; but I love that the first and only person that Ivy encounters turns out to be so good – so good that it could ultimately convince the villagers to leave. The story past the end credits could really go either way.

Lots to think about, as always in Shyamalan’s movies, but he’s going to definitely have to do something new soon (that said, I’ll of course watch and love it even if it rolls off the same assembly line as the last four).

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 7th, 2004 at 5:25 pm in Movie Reviews, unrated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.