Rani’s Favorite Things: Television shows & movies! (part two)

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. It’s my birthday month, and so we’re spending some time talking about my favorite things, and the way that these things shaped me into the person (and writer) that I am today. So far, we’ve talked about my favorite books and my all-time favorite television show—which means that today, I want to talk about one of my favorite movies. It’s one of the big inspiration pieces for the Druid Novels, to the point that I listened to the soundtrack almost on repeat while I was writing some of those novels, and to the point that I still watch it, when I find myself in need of some inspiration.

Rani’s Favorite Things: Television shows & movies! (part two)

Now, if you’ve read Coetir and you’ve seen this movie, I can nearly guarantee that you’ll’ve noticed some parallels, some similarities, some notions that I borrowed and strategically placed into my own world. And if you haven’t seen this movie… you really need to. I personally think it’s the best of Shyamalan’s movies—and I really like a lot of his work.

The Village

And if you’ve read Coetir: People of the Woods but you hadn't noticed the parallels already, right now you’re having a lightbulb moment. Yeah, The Village is one of my favorite movies, ever. I cannot describe to you how excited I was when it went back on Netflix. For some reason I never got around to buying this one on disc, even though I’ve had the soundtrack for years. I know, I really should get on that.

When I first watched this movie, I didn’t like this kind of movie. In fact, I didn’t really like anything thrilling, as I tended to have nightmares and I didn’t want to exacerbate the situation. But, my best friend really wanted to watch it, and she thought I was going to love it. So I watched it. I was terrified. And when it got to the end, I wanted to watch it again.

I’d loved it.

And I still love it.

To this day, it’s one of those movies that I can easily have on in the background on repeat, or just watch over and over and over again. I just love it so much. It’s an amazing work of art, and I’m trying really hard not to have any spoilers in here, just in case you haven’t seen it. You know how Shyamalan is with his twist endings, don’t you?

In any case, The Village was the movie that taught me about building and maintaining tension in a story. If I feel like my work is lacking in this area, I always go back to The Village as a source of inspiration. Shyamalan did such an amazing job here, of building tension right from the start, and keeping viewers on the edge of their seats until the final moment, wondering how it’s all going to end. And that’s what I try to do, in a lot of my work. I try to strategically build that tension, like a slow burn that seeps into you from the very start, that keeps you reading, keeps you wanting to know what happens next.

I don’t know how good a job I do. I hope I do well with it. Some stories I think I’ve done better than others, in that regard—but the inspiration, well that always came from The Village. And I’ve never looked back, since making that decision.

Writers, do you have a movie like this, a film you go to for inspiration? Let me know in the comments, or send me a message—I’d love to know!

Next week, we’ll continue our series in my favorite things, by talking about something I know you’ll all have seen coming. But you’ll enjoy it, I promise. ;-)

[love]

{Rani Divine}