22: The Village (2004)

Spoilers for The Village are present in this episode, as well as M. Night Shaymalan classics The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. Don’t get mad.

To say The Village is a complex film to discuss would be an understatement. A relic of 2004, when the Iraq War was in full swing and everyone was looking forward to the next big M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Village was marketed incorrectly as a horror movie, and expectations were high following previous Shyamalan hits The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. The film failed to live up to popular expectations, and kicked off a career low period for the director that would last about ten years, including the infamous The Last Airbender.

But a warm reception to Shyamalan’s more recent films The Visit, Split, and Glass have helped him get back into the public’s good graces, and prompted retrospective studies of films like The Village. For Vox, Emily VanDerWerff writes “M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village is an underrated masterpiece,” and that became the hypothesis for us to test going into this episode. Would a 16 year old film resonate with us today, do we feel it deserves a second chance, and is it actually an allegory for the Iraq War?

Motion Picture Pals is co-hosted by Cam Call, Rebekah Markillie, Joel Aleman, and producer Travis Lien.

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