10 More Horror Movies That Lied About Their Premise

6. The Village And It's "Those We Don't Speak Of"

Titane 2021
Buena Vista Pictures

Few directors split an audience as much as M. Night Shyamalan. While offerings such as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable received universal praise, the rest of Shyamalan's résumé has received a much more mixed response from the masses.

So, some have a huge appreciation for 2004's The Village, whilst others will lambast the film because it wasn't exactly what it was billed as. M. Night Shyamalan swerving an audience with the last thing they were expecting? Never...

Of course, we were all led to believe that The Village took place in the 19th century, with the focus on a remote community that had ominous creatures lurking on its outskirts. Veer too far from the village and these monsters - known as Those We Don't Speak Of - will be there to terrorise you. As a result, watchtowers line the edge of the village in order to protect from these beasts.

In reality, The Village is absolutely set in the modern-day, as detailed when Bryce Dallas Howard's Ivy ventures outside of the woods in search of medicine. While she does find someone who's able to give her what she needs, Ivy is blind and so is unaware that she's actually escaped a wildlife park funded for by the village's founder Edward.

As Edward and the other elders reflect back on their lives, the audience is told how this isolated society was created decades ago by a group of people sick of the real world. And those monsters? Yep, they were just members of the community dressed up in order to scare the younger members into never leaving.

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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.