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The Village Review: Arya’s Horror-Thriller Is A Bold Attempt, But Lacks Substance
The Village Review: Whenever a creator takes up a new genre or idea, it's always a risky path, especially in the genre of horror. To overlook its shortcomings, you have to look at it from a novel perspective.
Tamil actor Arya made his OTT debut with the Prime Video series The Village. The show is billed as India's first live-action adaptation of a graphic novel of the same name.
Helmed by Milind Rau, the horror thriller series revolves around a ghost village and a disturbing past that haunts it. The trailer offered a unique vision of the environment, human error, and superstitions. It also hinted at containing a lot of gore, thrills, and suspense. But did The Village really stand true to its expectations? Let's find out.
Story
The original Tamil language series, The Village, follows a nuclear family, Dr Gautham (Arya) and his wife Neha (Divya Pillai), who are on a road trip, travelling to Chennai with their daughter Maya and their pet dog, Hectic. Their car breaks down in a deserted and mysterious village named Kattiyal.
Ignorant about the village's reality, Gautham leaves his family in the car and walks to a nearby village alone to seek help, after which his wife and daughter get abducted.
Now, Gautham, with the help of localites Peter (George Maryan), Karunagam (Muthu Kumar), and Sakthivel (Naren), who share a common history with Kattiyal, will come join him to save his family.
Meanwhile, there's another plotline that is running simultaneously where Prakash (Arjun Chidambaram), a despicable, wheelchair-bound druggie, sends a group of mercenaries headed by Farhan (John Kokken) and some scientists to the same village to retrieve some samples called Lantanite that might turn out to be a boon for him as it could help him walk again.
As the story progresses, they discover that the village is haunted by mutants, and the beats there have some unfinished business.
What's good and what's bad
Directed and co-written by Milind Rau with Deeraj Vaidy and Deepthi Govindarajan, The Village keeps it straight with its storyline and direction. The past and present-day narration has been well directed.
Although horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and traditional superstitions have been adapted well with a refreshing concept, the direction fails to give chills, which is usually expected from a genre like this.
The set designs, particularly the factory, the eeriness of the village, the lab, and the look of the mutants, are mighty impressive and must be given credit.
However, the same can't be said about the colours given to the show. Meanwhile, the sound at many points stands out.
The dialogues are cliche and too stretched out and loud.
Some scenes have been contrived, have the usual horror banal, and look very routine. Meanwhile, remaining a little true to its story and genre, The Village has a lot of gore and grossing-out scenes, like bodies cut into halves, intestines slashed, gory-looking men, and many more.
But still, you won't feel scared or frown in disgust. And after a point, they all annoy you, as the story hardly puts any effort into incorporating new ideas, exploring new topics in a fresh way, or showing the characters in a reasonable manner.
Performances
The main lead, Arya, appears out of place and has barely any strong expressions. Divya Pillai has no impressive scenes to perform. While the child actor who plays Maya and the performances of Aadukalam Naren and Muthukumar, who played the roles of Shakthivel and Karunagam, are a little better, however, everyone fails during emotional scenes.
Arjun Chidambaram, an arrogant brat and a cunning businessman, delivers quite a passable performance.
Verdict
The series stands out with its innovative fusion and has some refreshing twists, but largely fails to provide thrills and fails to keep you on the edge of your seat, which is the main aspect of the horror genre.
An ambitious attempt at showing the rural superation with its main backdrop, The Village, comes as a poor imitation of western sci-fi films. The charters are poorly written, making them feel cartoonish.
Despite the makers good intentions, The Village, through six episodes that span 35-45 minutes, looks outdated and lacks substance. A little more focus on the screenplay could have made it more watchable.
Even a few scenes at some places, like the neon trees and the blood-filled beating trees, look like they have been made on a shoestring budget. The show is a pass but can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
