The Village

Like a time portal, “The Village”, takes you to a period that’s seemingly past. A very small village in the middle of the woods is haunted by beasts whom are attracted to the color red. The movie opens showing two women dancing while sweeping the front porch of a house. While performing this act of pleasure, the women notice a red flower. The flower is quickly plucked from it’s roots; hastily the women dig a hole in the ground and bury the bright red flower. It is with this opening that the movie quickly sets up the dichotomy of joy and conservatism.
This village is apparently based strongly in tradition and religion. The elders of this society are chiefly responsible for the decision making and governing of the village. It is because of this that the elders wield such power and influence over the children. While the decisions made by the elders seem to be in the best interests of the constituents there is an ominous feeling of malevolence in their actions.
With the extent of influence that the elders carry with them comes a level of corruption that is inherent with that amount of power. The elders convince their subordinates that the woods that surround the village are extremely dangerous and that to merely enter them would bring great harm to not only the person entering the woods, but also the entire village.
Ivy, the protagonist, falls in love with a very quiet, stoic character. She professes her love to him, only to find these words falling on deaf ears. When out enjoying some stolen time with her friend, a mentally challenged character, she runs into Lucius near the edge of the woods. It is at this time that she informs her love that she feels the reason her words of love were not received by him, was because some people choose not to show any do something out of fear that their true desires will be revealed. It is these lessons that finally weigh true to Lucius, he realizes that his actions are counterintuitive to his needs and desires.
Noah Percy, the mentally challenged character, makes a mistake; the mistake that is made leads to drawing the monsters out of the woodwork. The monsters, dressed in red, with intimidating faces and spikes protruding from their backs, begin to invade the village. With the invaders infiltrating various houses, Ivy is loyally waiting on Lucius to come and rescue her. This blatant disregard for her own safety is an attempt to prove to both herself and Lucius their love for each other.
When attempting to save Ivy and her family, Lucius is nearly fatally injured. With only the primitive medicine of the village, Lucius would almost certainly die. Ivy finds this proposition unacceptable, and wants to find the means of saving Lucius’ life. Explaining to her father that without Lucius alive, she has no reason to go on with life.
Ivy’s father is then forced to make a life changing decision: protect the secret of the elder’s and the way of life for the people of the village, or provide his daughter with the knowledge necessary to save the life of the one she loves. The secret that is his burden to keep is that the elders of the village orchestrated and constructed the town to escape the frustrations and hardships of real life. It is because of this decision to abandon real-life and create their own reality that he is burdened with the guilt of knowing that he created his own daughter’s adversity.
Her father makes the tough decision that he values his daughter over the integrity of the village. While this decision will result in the possible outcast of himself and his family, he still feels that what happened to Lucius was a crime that he could have prevented. Her father providers her with the proper medication to give to Lucius. The medication must be acquired in a neighboring town. The very existence of this town is in itself the principle lie that the elders have constructed to sell to their children. In order to qualm the curiosity of the younger people whom have not been told the secret of the town, the elders create a myth of ravenous monsters that reside in the surrounding forest. It is these monsters, dressed in the “bad color”, that terrorize the village.
It is before her quest that her father explains to her that the not only are they not an isolated village, but the creatures are merely a myth perpetuated by the elders. Fueled with the ambition for saving her love as well as the newly found knowledge that her life has been a farce, she drives her way through the forest with resolve one would not think possible from a blind women. When she finally reaches the neighboring town, she is confronted by a park ranger. When explaining her plight to the guard, he reluctantly agrees to help her find the medicine necessary to save Lucius. After getting the medicine for Lucius, Ivy returns to the village and is able to save his life. The movie, however, ends rather ambiguously not necessarily explaining whether or not the elders decide to carry on with the village.
This film seemed to fall into the art-dread category instead of the art-horror. The film extracted emotions which were of nervousness, anxiety, and intense worry. These emotions however were for the characters instead of for myself. I felt these feelings when trying to figure out the big question of where the monsters came from and why they were attacking this village. The monsters were pretty gross looking, but nothing that scared me to the point where I felt the emotions that come with art-horror. They were almost more comical than horrifying but that could have been because the film seemed to lack entities that make up a typical horror movie. The movie seemed rather predictable and had a plot line that was lacking. According to Carroll, the plot is a key element to an art-horror film. Overall, this film lacked the material necessary for a horror film or a feature film in general.