The Village

The Village is a 2004 M. Night Shyamalan film starring Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, and Brendan Gleeson. The inhabitants of a village are separated from "the towns" by a woods where dangerous creatures live. Fear of the creatures keeps the villagers from venturing from their clearing. This film got wildly differing reviews, but I liked it. The atmosphere was wonderful, and the characters were sympathetic. There's a polarizing "twist" ending, but it didn't bother me.

The Atlantic has a negative review, as does the New York Times.

Vulture sees it as a parable about the rise of the conservatism that gave us Trump, concluding with this:

just as the elders shouldn’t have pretended that the past was free of the problems of the present, so should we in the present not pretend that the past is dead. (As Faulkner reminds us, “it’s not even past.”) We’ve yet to stop trying to use the myth of the “bad color” monster to make America great again, though The Village offers the hope that the kids will know — and vote — better.

Common Sense Media gives it 4 out of 5 stars. MTV says, "There's allegory to be found within the twist — oppressive rule through fear in the name of safety cannot prevent violence and death, even in the most extreme of settings — but a shoehorned moral cannot heal the severe whiplash the audience just experienced." Empire Online closes by saying, "The denouement will infuriate and enthral, but Shyamalan's latest is made with elegance."

The Village Voice calls it "the best studio horror flick in recent years". Spirituality and Practice praises it as "A timely and spiritually rich thriller about the dangers of a fear-based culture and the soul-stirring powers of self-sacrificing love." Rolling Stone says, "Shyamalan gives the film a metaphorical weight that goes deeper than goose bumps. He may find himself linked with Michael Moore as a political provocateur."

Moria says, "The Village is easily M. Night Shyamalan’s best film since The Sixth Sense". Roger Ebert hated it. Rotten Tomatoes had a critics score of 43% and an audience score of 57%.