10 Movies With Unexpectedly Ridiculous Plots

6. The Village

Noah Movie Crowe
Touchstone Pictures

What makes The Village so bad? The po-faced sincerity with which it treats its “twist”, which turns out to be the same device Mel Brooks used in Blazing Saddles, only played straight.

In order to maintain the illusion that they’re living in the Nineteenth Century, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver and Brendan Gleeson dress up as monsters in order to keep the children from venturing into “the towns” (ie the normal world). But when someone needs to journey outside to fetch medical supplies, they decide to send Bryce Dallas Howard’s blind girl, which if you think about it is both incredibly dumb and incredibly cruel.

Anyway, Howard arrives in the normal world and one of the first people she meets is director M Night Shyamalan, whose expressions are absolutely priceless as he listens to her story. After being nominated for numerous awards, including two Oscars, Shyamalan became the Razzies whipping boy of choice after The Village, it’s not difficult to see why.

Contributor

Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'