20 Horror Films Where Humans Are The Real Monsters

When M. Night Shyamalan was simultaneously making a name for himself as a good director and a slave to occasionally tedious narrative twists, he released The Village, cementing his reputation for the latter and permanently damaging his credits for the former.

The Village is apparently set in remote, rural 19th-century Pennsylvania, where the titular village is plagued by visits from “Those We Do Not Speak Of” – hulking, humanoid creatures that stalk the surrounding woodlands and keep the inhabitants stranded. Despite the watchtowers, oil lamps, and stories designed to keep the villagers home, a love for the ages between Lucius and Ivy (Joaquin Phoenix and Bryce Dallas Howard) threatens the stability they’ve created between them and the monsters.

With Lucius mortally wounded and in desperate need of help, Edward (William Hurt), Ivy’s father, sends her out to get medication, revealing that the monsters are in fact just the village elders in disguise, who chose to build the legend of the creatures to keep the young at home and perpetuate their lineage away from mainstream society. But that’s not all, because the whole 19th-century thing? Yeah, that’s a lie too, and they’re actually living in modern-day America, with all the mod-cons that could easily prevent disease and save lives.  

There is a satisfying duality to this one, as the monsters are literally the elders, and the elders are themselves metaphorically monsters. It would all be kind of neat if they weren’t the absolute worst.