From the article:
"By contrast, โThe Villageโ is a somewhat oblique social commentary masquerading as a spooky horror film. It doesnโt advertise itself as something controversial; you have to scratch to find what is in fact gutsy and shocking about it. Critics are vaguely aware that it isnโt kosher, but they arenโt sure why.
The setting of the movie appears to be a 19th-century utopian community, which sits in a picturesque valley surrounded by dark woods. The woods are said to be inhabited by monsters, known to the townsfolk as โThose We Donโt Speak Of.โ Long ago, a truce was reached between the townspeople and the monsters: if the people stay in the valley, the monsters will leave them alone.
Beyond the woods, we are told, are places called โthe towns.โ The elders of the village warn vaguely that the towns are evil places, best avoided.
Most of the people in the village seem perfectly happy staying put. However, some of the younger folk have some curiosity about the world outside their home.
Without bogging down in the details of the plot, I will say that it eventually becomes necessary for a young woman to make a terrifying journey through the woods and to โthe towns.โ It is when she makes it to her destination that we find out the movieโs โtwist.โ Instead of taking place in the 19th century, the setting is in fact the present. The elders of the village, we discover, are Americans who, about three decades ago, decided to flee the decadence and corruption of the modern world and set up an agrarian community inside a nature preserve somewhere in Pennsylvania.
Apparently, these settlers elected to set the clock back and behave as though the 20th century had never existed. They took on not only old-style dress and lifestyle but also (and less plausibly) dialect. In order to keep their children from straying back into modern life, they made up the myth of monsters dwelling in the woods who will not bother the townsfolk as long as they remain in the valley."
