By Dave Workman

"The Village"

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, William Hurt, Adrien Brody, Sigourney Weaver and Brendan Gleeson

Rating: PG-13 (for suspense, some violence and bloodshed)

Running time: 109 minutes

Best suited for: Shyamalan diehards, those who’s never seen a "Twilight Zone" episode

Least suited for: psychological thriller purists and suspense freaks, those expecting "The Sixth Sense" redux

Acorn’s Rating Guide:

2.5 acorns

By the time "The Village" had ended, I wasn’t certain which group I found more abhorrent, the village elders or the howling creatures that lurked beyond their torchlight.

In this morose psychological thriller, an isolated hamlet of turn-of-the-century Pennsylvania farmers have forged an uneasy truce with unhuman predators living in the adjacent forest. From the onset, one has the impression that the townspeople are more hostages than uneasy neighbors. Shepherding and fear are the town’s preoccupations. William Hurt plays the village patriarch, Edward Walker, a somber fellow who believes that, despite the undercurrent of terror, the village is really a pretty nice place to live.

One can’t help but suspect that Edward Walker has ulterior motives.

"The Village" is M. Night Shyamalan’s fourth film. Despite the director’s instant rise to fame with "The Sixth Sense," he’s been hard-pressed to repeat that success. Admittedly, "Unbreakable" and "Signs" had many good moments, but both suffered from a want of a coherent end-game. "Unbreakable" lacked an entire third act, and the spooky "Signs" was plagued by a fundamental flaw: If those invading aliens were so darn intelligent, why didn’t they think to bring rain gear?

In "The Village," Shyamalan again attempts to create a slick ending, but I suspect a good many viewers will figure out his secret. In fact, the film spends so much time trying to prepare us for the razzle-dazzle finale that it begins to slip in and out of logic and reality. It’s a film that tries to be both "Blair Witch Project" and "The Truman Show," and its message could be considered one of downright communistic dogma.

All of which is not to say that "The Village" isn’t watchable. There’s a certain Twilight Zone uneasiness at play here, a vintage B-movie creepiness—enhanced by supurb cinematography that manages to instill, for awhile anyway, a powerful sense of dread. The film’s undeniable bright spot is Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays Edward Walker’s feisty blind daughter, Ivy. Ms. Howard is good—she’s very good—and compensates for an otherwise lackluster cast. She and Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) are in love, which drives the plot and Ivy’s eventual sojourn through the haunted woods.

At any film’s conclusion I ask myself who, or what, has changed as a result of the preceding conflict. Good drama requires change, after all—character growth and development. If I can’t answer that simple question, then something important is missing on screen. Unfortunately, I sensed no difference in leaving the village than when arriving. That is perhaps the film’s biggest flaw.

One last note: For Shyamalan- spotters (the director allows himself a cameo—à la Hitchcock—in each of his films), this time he’s pretty hard to catch. For those who’ve too easily figured out the story, watching for him provides a good way to kill time.

In a nutshell: Something sinister lurks in "The Village," and many viewers may solve the mystery long before Shyamalan expects you to catch on. In an extreme case of Walden-gone-bad, there’s a bit of suspense but far too many holes to keep the plot solid. Some may find the conclusion farcical while others may be truly surprised, although on the way home you’ll likely find 50 reasons why things in "The Village" couldn’t really have been the way they were made to appear.