Reviews aside . . . presumably no more scary than other classic period "folk horror" films such as WITCHFINDER GENERAL, BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW, THE WICKER MAN or my personal witches-related fav CITY OF THE DEAD (although a couple of those are pretty scary) with the main difference being you could understand what people were saying in the '60's and '70's no matter how thick the accents.
Unintelligible is a word I've seen used a fair bit regarding this film and the other recent period flic A FIELD IN ENGLAND.
For anyone wondering why the 1.66:1 aspect ratio:-
Quote from cinematographer Jarin Blaschke "You mentioned the aspect ratio. What was behind that philosophy and going into that framing? What was the visual storytelling goal there?
Well, it’s more timeless. It’s a shape that goes back further into our history. I mean you don’t really see a lot that’s 1.85:1 before, you know, the 1950s. That’s a shape that you didn’t see in the arts until very recently. That timeless quality was attractive. Also it was just going by my gut. It just felt right. It also had benefits of being able to make the house a little more claustrophobic and also show more height of the trees looming over the characters. And you could still have the whole family in the shot and have it work out. Rob loves 1.33:1, too. Our first two shorts together were 1.33 and he just, you know, he loves it. So hopefully we can do that again."
For anyone wondering about the double-V of the title (or "doble V" Sp., "double-vé" Fr.) it's not a mis-print (lol) and according to Wiki it stems from Latin via German to Old English and can also be seen as UU:-
This pamphlet of 1693 shows the "UU" or "VV" alongside the new style "W" at the head of the page.
Whenever I see home video releases with images of woods on the cover I can't help thinking it's about time we had a Blu-ray (Amaray or even steelbook) release of THE VILLAGE . . .
As for the steelbook itself: Looks good although maybe not as good as the U.S. / Canada steelbook and if special features are important that's the one to get but a region free player is required as it's region "A" locked.
For a basic comparison between the two steelbooks with the better U.S. front and insides vs. the better ROW (?) back:-
II
V
U.S. & Canada
ROW ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... with shades of the latest ET steelbook (lol)
Nice artwork but the movie was a strict one time watch. Oh, this film was hardly scary for me, probably because I almost slept due to slow pacing. So easy pass.
. A lot of folks seem to like it though.
. Oh well, I'm happy for the guys that enjoyed it.
