The Films of M. Night Shymalamadingdong

[innerSpaceman]

Hmmm, and I think the story of The Village works fine, in fact better, if you don't bother considering the "twist" to be a twist. It's still a great allegory about a peaceful, yet fearful and purposefully isolated society. When it's revealed that the isolation is from today's world rather than yesterday's, it simply brings into focus that it's an allegory about US -- and not some great trickster revelation about how the audience has been fooled up till then.

Even more than Lady in the Water, The Village is presented as a story, with a structure and many distinct elements that telegraph "a tale is being told." Plus, with the story set artificially in the past, M. Night allows his anachronistic dialogue to be pure poetry throughout the film ... contributing much - imo - the storyish feel of the film.

In fact, I'm sure that I prefer the stylistic "this is a story" of The Village to the overt "This Is A Story" of Lady in the Water. However, since the new film has NO TWIST, the lack of one won't be a distraction for all the twistaholics out there.