M. Night Shyamalan Brings the Fear
In our last movie review, my almost-fourteen-year-old daughter, Eva, and I watched Boys in Trees with the other parental unit. That review was difficult to write because of the intricacies of the ending. How do you discuss such a film without spoilers? I guess in reality you don’t. The film had a very M. Night Shyamalan feel to it. Eva had similar thoughts when comparing it to a film she saw in school.
So, we decided to gather both movies. Eva checked Netflix for hers and my husband checked the library for Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense (1999).
Both succeeded. Imagine my surprise when we gathered one Sunday evening and snuggled on the couch to discover that Eva’s pick was Shyamalan’s The Village (2004). Neither my husband nor I are Shyamalan fans— we christened Unbreakable “Unbearable.” It boils down to this: his visuals usually stun, his scripts are strong, but his pacing always stretches an enjoyable story into eternity.
Yet, after watching these two films closely together, I had a lightbulb moment.
Shyamalan in his scripts and his filmmaking dissects how humanity manipulates fear.
Story Breakdown
The Village presents a community at the verge of the 20th century where everyone lives in harmony, no one uses money, and the residents are trapped in their idyllic bubble because of monsters in the woods referred to as “those we shall not speak of.” The film is often characterized as psychological horror and the characters have to weigh their fear of these unnamed creatures against their needs – who once seen resemble a man-sized hybrid of porcupines and boars. Blind Ivy Walker (Dallas Bryce Howard) eventually decides to leave the village to save her fiancé, and by doing so, she learns the truth behind the monsters in the woods.
With The Sixth Sense, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) tries to help Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a young boy who sees ghosts. Sear reminds Crowe of a former patient who had shot him the year before. Cole leads Dr. Crowe to consider the possibility that ghosts are real. Cole has not told anyone, not even his mother, that he sees ghosts because even at his young age he is astute enough to know that blaming things on ghosts will certainly not end well. Cole’s honesty not only brings closure to Cole, who learns how to deal with the ghosts, but also draws him closer to his mother, easing her fears; and also releases Dr. Crowe.
In The Village, the elder founders use fear and the mythic supernatural to keep the youth contained and under control. In The Sixth Sense, the young protagonist must conquer fear and the supernatural to free himself as well as the ghosts who haunt him. With context in mind, the ghosts serve as elders and the two films offer juxtaposed views of fear.
SPOILERS— Please stop here if you have not seen these films and wish to maintain the surprise of Shyamalan’s endings.
Analysis of Fear
With The Village, the elders created the monsters in the woods so that the children never questioned their environment. The village is actually a re-creation, one built on a protected reserve when Edward Walker (William Hurt) met like-minded individuals at a crime victim’s support group 25 years earlier. That’s right, the time in the film is contemporary but these young people have no idea what is going on in the rest of the world.
In The Sixth Sense, in the final moments, Dr. Crowe discovers that he died in the incident with the former patient and he was one of the ghosts haunting Cole.
In both movies, nothing is how it seems, Eva says, and fear serves to reinforce Shyamalan’s purpose. With The Village, All of the fear the children had for the monsters in the woods was based on the powers of their own minds and the occasional sighting of an elder disguised as a monster. In The Sixth Sense, if Dr. Crowe would have embraced Cole’s gift earlier, his eyes would have been opened to the reality of his own death.
Conclusions
Eva considers The Sixth Sense the better movie. Eva recommends watching The Village to see how the plot unfolds. It’s not a scary film, she says, but the ambience can be creepy. The Sixth Sense has different ghosts appearing all the time, which makes the film more interesting. It is much scarier than The Village because some of the ghosts are terrifying.
That leaves the final question: So should humanity embrace the supernatural or fear it?
Shyamalan movies usually leave you wanting to believe in ghosts, or aliens, or superheroes, or unnamed monsters, or fairytales.
And of course, geographically, I have to love Shyamalan’s use of his home state of Pennsylvania in his films. We live about an hour outside of Philadelphia, Shyamalan’s former stomping grounds.
The Plot Sickens: Angel Ackerman sees Boys in the Trees…
Crash Analysis Support Team
Angel Ackerman
After a fifteen-year career in print journalism, Angel Ackerman has studied world history, (specifically post-colonial Francophone Africa, Muslim relations, and contemporary Western politics) and traveled several continents. Her recent publications include the poem This Paris in Step Away magazine, an essay on the weather and travel on the Horn of Africa in Rum Punch Press, academic encyclopedia entries on Djibouti, a review in Global Studies South on a book examining famine in Somalia, book reviews from eons ago for Hippocampus Magazine and an upcoming essay on chickens. Follow her on Twitter.
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