VILLAGE PEOPLE.(Movie Review)

According to Thoreau, "Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl." One envies Thoreau many things, among them the confidence that he could stride through the woods of Maine and Massachusetts without being poked in the rear by the fender of a 4 x 4. More happily still, he never had to watch a horror film, and was thus unaware that the middle of nowhere is the worst place for a man to set up home. One cannot help wondering what he would have made of "The Village," a movie that is dedicated both to the virtues of a stripped-down society, lit by sun and candlepower, and to the fact that an American wilderness, if you listen carefully, is indeed a howler, and ...