Carefully avoiding spoilers...
At the time the movie came out, there was a huge fuss about Shyamalan pigeonholing himself as a "twist ending schtick" movie-maker, with this movie being considered unfavorably compared to "The Sixth Sense." I watched it in the theater and while I wasn't extremely impressed (though I was a bit drunk, so take that as you will) I didn't think the criticism was fair. I hadn't really thought about it in the decade and a half since, and barely even remembered much of it. So I decided on a rewatch recently and came to the conclusion that I agreed with my original assessment, and actually found it more impressive to boot.
The "twist" is a twist, no question. Shyamalan likely was trying to accede to expectations by continuing to give twist endings to his movies. But this movie is actually a fairly solid story even outside of the twist. In "The Sixth Sense," the twist made the movie, or at least elevated it from good to great. Here, the twist is less an attempt at a shock ending than a natural progression of the plot and a thematic element to accentuate the story of the village and how the people came to reside there. Obviously the twist adds to the movie, but as a plot point rather than a surprise ending. This is most obvious in the fact that the reveal was basically done 30 minutes before the end of the movie, at which point we were less shocked than enlightened with regards to the nature of the events earlier in the movie.
All in all, a solid mystery/drama movie. I'm glad I decided to rewatch it.
At the time the movie came out, there was a huge fuss about Shyamalan pigeonholing himself as a "twist ending schtick" movie-maker, with this movie being considered unfavorably compared to "The Sixth Sense." I watched it in the theater and while I wasn't extremely impressed (though I was a bit drunk, so take that as you will) I didn't think the criticism was fair. I hadn't really thought about it in the decade and a half since, and barely even remembered much of it. So I decided on a rewatch recently and came to the conclusion that I agreed with my original assessment, and actually found it more impressive to boot.
The "twist" is a twist, no question. Shyamalan likely was trying to accede to expectations by continuing to give twist endings to his movies. But this movie is actually a fairly solid story even outside of the twist. In "The Sixth Sense," the twist made the movie, or at least elevated it from good to great. Here, the twist is less an attempt at a shock ending than a natural progression of the plot and a thematic element to accentuate the story of the village and how the people came to reside there. Obviously the twist adds to the movie, but as a plot point rather than a surprise ending. This is most obvious in the fact that the reveal was basically done 30 minutes before the end of the movie, at which point we were less shocked than enlightened with regards to the nature of the events earlier in the movie.
All in all, a solid mystery/drama movie. I'm glad I decided to rewatch it.