The Village
7RELEASE DATE July 30
WHY WE CAN'T WAIT No one's better these days at scaring us with things that go bump in the night than writer/director M. Night Shyamalan (''The Sixth Sense,'' ''Signs''). And no one's better at fighting monsters who live in darkness than Sigourney Weaver.
THE PREMISE In his first period piece, Shyamalan sets up housekeeping among 19th-century villagers (including Adrien Brody, ''Signs'' alum Joaquin Phoenix, William Hurt, newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard, and Weaver), whose truce with the mysterious creatures living in the surrounding woods has apparently broken down.
SOURCE Shyamalan's creepy imagination
THE BACK STORY Weaver, who says Shyamalan's script gave her nightmares in a way that the ''Alien'' movies never did, learned how to live as a villager in 1897 would have: ''We learned how to weave, how to spin, how to hew logs. I wasn't one of the ones who had to decapitate a rabbit, for which I am grateful.''
BURNING QUESTION Can Howard (daughter of Ron) and indie poster boy (and Oscar winner) Brody carry a mainstream movie on their shoulders?
COME FOR The gothic horror
STAY FOR The gothic romance, à la ''Wuthering Heights,'' between Phoenix (pictured) and Howard
