Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" might not have wowed critics the way his 1999 film "The Sixth Sense" did, but the film's DVD edition offers up some meaty extras for fans of Shyamalan's signature plot twists and surprise turns.
"The Village" is the tale of a secluded Pennsylvania village cut off from the rest of the world and surrounded by woods full of dangerous monsters and boogeymen known to the villagers as "Those We Don't Speak Of." Most villagers are content to live with a bargain they made with the creatures: They don't enter the forest, and the creatures don't enter the town. But conflict arises when Lucius Hunt, played by Joaquin Phoenix, wishes to leave the village in search of new medicines, and the pact is broken.
Shyamalan put together a noteworthy cast for this film. Adrien Brody, Brendan Gleeson, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver join Phoenix as villagers. Fortunately for viewers, much of the extra material on the DVD is driven by this star power.
The longest of the special features, "Deconstructing 'The Village,'" is an in-depth look at the writing, casting, filming and scoring of the piece, and it leans heavily on interviews and testimonials by the cast.
The featurette also pays attention to some of the more remarkable aspects of the film, such as its cinematography and the intense costuming necessary to capture the look and feel of the 19th-century town.
Four deleted scenes fill in some plot blanks and show some alternate ideas Shyamalan considered.
Finally, actress Bryce Dallas Howard reads selections of a diary she kept during casting and filming. More than other bonus materials, this piece comes off as a bit cloying and overly self-congratulatory without adding much to the experience of the film.
Conspicuously, no commentary tracks are on this disc. Perhaps Shyamalan's obsession with meticulously crafting momentous plot twists extends to keeping his extras mostly spoiler-free -- a hard task with commentary tracks. The biggest surprise he could offer now would be to give viewers a film that relies more on traditional plot and character development than on his predictable story swerves.
The Village
Buena Vista Home Video; DVD $29.99;VHS $24.99;
rated PG-13;
available Tuesday
New on DVD:
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