20140515: Horror Review--The Secret Village

The Secret Village

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 89 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 2.5/10.0 from 567 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 1,950,000 USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet...' and 42% liked it from 142 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.3/5.0 from 19,665 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Swami M. Kandan.  Written by: Jason B. Whittier, Swami M. Kandan.
6. Starring: Jonathan Bennett as Greg, Ali Faulkner as Rachel, Stelio Savante as Joe, Richard Riehle as Paul, Toby Gadison as Jim.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Rachel is a reporter of sorts, and Greg is a screenwriter.  Both of them become interested in reports of mass hysteria in a small town in Massachusetts.  By some circumstance, they end up being roommates in a large house in the area.


2. The locals vary between not forthcoming and outright hostile.  Rachel takes a job at a local eatery.  Rachel keeps in touch with her boss by telephone.  Greg floats around looking for information to help his creative process.  Paul and Jim help Rachel with clues as they can.  Greg's position turns out to be ambiguous; he steals some of Rachel's research materials and gives them to the villagers.  Max, Rachel's boss, is glad to help her, but needs some sort of supporting facts before bringing in authorities to deal with the evil-doers.


3. Will Rachel get to the bottom of this?  Will Greg's position become clear?  Will the secrets be revealed?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Murky horror/mystery set in a village in Massachusetts.
2. One star of five.  Two blackholes for acting and screenplay.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Mostly clear and sharp; only occasionally falls into shaky camera mode.


2. Sound: 6/10 The music is reasonably creepy, but is often over the top compared to the story and visuals.


3. Acting: 1/10 I have nothing good to say here.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Where do I begin?  Editing is a clear weakness; some clips are out of sequence.  Exposition of motivations is not good; I saw only a pinch of that on two characters.  Too many of the short conversations in the film seemed context free.  The historical flashbacks seemed to have little or nothing to do with the main storyline.  The ending may have been meant to be as wonderful as the ending of The Sixth Sense, but it fell flat instead.