The Village is the latest suspense thriller from Director M. Night Shyamalan. Because of some truly fantastic trailers and the success of some of his previous films, most notably "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs", this has been perhaps the most highly anticipated release of the summer.

The concept of this film revolves around a village that seems to be set in rural America in the late 18^th or 19^th century. This village is surrounded by watchtowers and involves the idea that there is a dangerous race of creatures living outside the village borders in the forest. The color red, a clue in "The Sixth Sense", is again important in this story as the villagers get rid of flowers, berries or anything else that holds the color red for fear that it attracts "Those that we do not speak of". The color yellow is used to repel "Those" and the villagers paint it at the borders and wear it on their cloaks to keep them away.

This film is imaginative and beautiful but does not flow properly. I was expecting this to be M. Night Shyamalan’s greatest work and evoke the horror that author Joseph Citro did with novels like "Shadow Child". But simply put, "The Village" tends to drag on a bit and falls short of being truly thrilling or terrifying. By the time everything comes together you wonder if the ending makes the slow ride worthwhile.

One of the first problems is that there are too many big stars in this film and instead of helping the film it’s a major distraction. I found Sigourney Weaver’s performance to be completely affected to the point that she couldn’t have passed the audition to work at Plimouth Plantation. And Adrien Brody is also a distraction in a key role as a young man with "nervous troubles". He doesn’t pull it off as convincingly as Billy Bob Thornton does.

I think that the obsession with clues and a deeper meaning end up in the way of letting this be the great film that it could have been.

The story is full of secrets, twists and varying realities. Going into it much further would give everything away. It is somewhat enjoyable because of the imaginative concept and the cinematography. But after seeing this I think that M. Night Shyamalan may have already given us his greatest work with "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs".

I would suggest that although his minimalism has worked well in the past that he up the budget for costumes and special effects in the next film. The monsters in this movie will remind you a lot of the blurry aliens in "Signs" in that we see them rarely and when we do see them they look more like a guy in a pricey Halloween costume than something you would be afraid of.