'The Village' web series review: Arya and Divya Pillai's horror-drama is hunted down by clichés and lack of thrills

Cast: Arya, George Maryan, Divya Pillai, Pooja RamachandranDirector: Milind Rau Language: TamilDr Gautham (Arya) and his wife Neha (Divya Pillai) are traveling to Chennai along with their daughter Maya when their car breaks down at a deserted village. As the help and the narrative progress, they discover the village is, no prizes for guessing, haunted. But, what makes the series The Village, directed and co-written by Milind Rau along with Deeraj Vaidy and Deepthi Govindarajan refreshing is that the ghost is not your usual evil spirit that wants to seek revenge or has some sort of unfinished business.The monsters here go beyond jump scares. But the problem with the series is that it’s never as thrilling and captivating as it should be. Even when Arya, the leading man of the show puts up an impressive performance, he’s overshadowed by the writing that loses grip pretty quickly. It’s fine if you have done away with those done-to-death ghosts, but the characters still behave as they do in every other horror movie. There are deaths, there are investigations, and then there’s one wrong move that leads to all the mess.The series has been shot beautifully, and to combine eeriness and effervescence needs a nuanced understanding of the milieu, and some brownie points need to be given to the show for it. However, unlike Kantara and Tumbbad, The Village is not able to become more than just a title about ghosts and monsters. A dark flashback that sheds light on discrimination, the evil corporates taking over the jungles unfortunately reeks of pretense. The show wants to be a mystifying horror-drama but also a commentary on the environment. The concoction is bland.However, let’s try to end the review on a positive note. The series, as mentioned above, has stunning cinematography, spurts of eeriness that is effective, and the idea of creating a horror-drama as a web series needs to be at least lauded, if not universally embraced. Maybe next time.The Village is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video