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The village (The woods) - Bryce Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, M Night Shyamalan

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

The truce is ending.

Set in rural Pennsylvania, USA, in 1897, this is the story of the small village of Covington (population 60) surrounded by a woods inhabited by a race of "mythical creatures", and the romance that blossoms between Kitty (Judy Greer), the daughter of the town's leader (William Hurt), and Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix), a young man who questions the policy of keeping Covington's citizens completely confined to the village. When Lucius plans to step beyond the borders of the town and into the unknown, his bold move threatens to forever change the future of the village.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film thriller horror M Night Shyamalan Pennsylvania monsters danger red

Persons of interest

Joaquin Phoenix .... Lucius Hunt
Bryce Howard .... Ivy Walker
William Hurt .... Edward Walker
Sigourney Weaver .... Alice Hunt
Adrien Brody .... Noah Percy
Judy Greer .... Kitty Walker
Jayne Atkinson .... Mrs Walker
Frank Collison .... Victor
M Night Shyamalan .... Screenwriter
M Night Shyamalan .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

The village (The woods) official movie site
The village (The woods) QuickTime movie trailers

Awards and film festivals:

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS - Oscars) 2005: Nominated: Best Original Score
MTV Movie Awards 2005: Nominated: Breakthrough female (Bryce Dallas Howard)
San Sebastián International Film Festival 2004: Velodrome

Studios and distributors:

Touchstone * Buena Vista International

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

The village is not as dramatic as M Night Shyamalan's other films (see Signs, The sixth sense, Unbreakable). It's interesting, occasionally scary and has a twist (that I saw coming after 10 minutes, but I'm a genius so you should take that into account). The down-side is that it just doesn't get very exciting. After all, we know from history that this story never happened and there are no lost tribes of Protestants hidden in the forests of North America.

Eh. Enjoy it anyway.