We in Malaysia just got to see the 2 hour special via HBO recently. If it was a hoax, it was very well done. Congrats, M. Night! The drowning, the house where he was supposed to have grown up during his ages 10 - 12, the anger shown at being confronted with this 'information', the face of 'Henry' in the mirror, the crow, it was all so convincingly done! The whole theme of the 'documentary' hinted that M. Night was driven by unseen forces...that his creativity was controlled by an unseen force, presumably the spirit of the boy who drowned 200 years ago. The crow which apparently appeared everywhere he went...it was typical genius of M. Night.I enjoyed it. Let me not spoil it for those who are yet to see it. If u are a fan of M. Night, don't miss this for anything!

Whatever could be the intention of this documentary or piece of fiction (as reports from media say), the work was excellent. The buildup was gradual but sure. I, for one, surely believed that Manoj had extraordinary experiences after watching this documentary. I would definitely feel bad if this TV show was actually a hoax and a well devised marketing strategy. So I will assume that there could be some truth in it and wait eagerly for Night's next supernatural thriller. By the way, my name is Manoj too. My parents are doctors and my mother tongue is Malayalam too. I too am passionate about movies and long to either direct or write scripts about supernatural thrillers. Plain coincidence or something beyond my explanation?

Due to the production of The Village, a documentary film crew get a high level of access to the reclusive director M. Night Syamalan. Thanks to their producer and Night's publicist, they have a collection of authorised interviews to do and find that they are all fairly uninteresting. When they do some talking head stuff with fans, they come across a kid who claims that Night is 'connected'. Following this thread they begin to uncover some strange items in Night's past and, as they wander off the 'authorised' path, they are met with resistance from Night's people. The end result is a speculative documentary that has been disowned by the producers and has been the subject of a legal challenge by Night himself.Despite my plot summary, I sat down to this 'documentary' knowing full well that it was just a piece of fiction as opposed to a genuine documentary. Apparently in the US, some viewers bought it and bought the whole idea – even though that many of the 'real' people do come across as actors and some of the shots are too deliberately staged. If it were a documentary it would be made as one – this is more like the Blair Witch Project as it tries to record things happening. Anyway, even with the knowledge that this was a rather cynical marketing ploy I must say that it was better than a load of talking head interviews with gushing actors, which is usually what we get in the way of promotional material.Even if the 'plot' goes a little far, it is still quite well written and the connections to Night's films makes you think 'well, I suppose' and it helps engage. However this is not to suggest it is a perfect film because it isn't – it is not as well structured as it needed to be and the producers could have done a lot better with it. In some moments it is well done but generally the stuff with the film crew is rather heavily staged and obvious – to the detriment of the film. Also the actual plot is a problem – with its overuse of a pizza delivery boy and some teenagers making it feel like a film as opposed to a factual piece. Depp and Brody come off a bit wooden, while Night himself is too obviously creepy and the performances from the documentary crew themselves are pretty weak and unconvincing.However this was still interesting enough to watch once even if you know it is a fake. The plot is quite clever even if the structure is not as good as it needed to be and it shouldn't have wandered so heavily into Blair Witch territory as it did. Although I can't understand why so many people fell for it, I do think that, as a promo, that this is at least an interesting try and is certainly more enjoyable that the usual actors answering the usual questions and saying how wonderful everything was. Imperfect and will annoy those who see it as a cruel marketing gimmick but it is interesting enough to be worth seeing if you get the chance.

Definitely one of the most entertaining TV movies I've seen for a long time.I was shocked to see in a CNN report that some gutless fool had decided to demystify the film, stating that "this marketing strategy is not consistent with our policy at NBC." The reference to fans being upset to discover that they had watched a mockumentary was also surprising to me. Would it help them if they had an announcement before any film they watched stating that they were about to see a work of fiction? No doubt this would please Heresy who makes the ridiculous statement in his review on this site that the film should not have been passed off as a documentary at all. Well that's just brainless. Some things are best kept secret. Life would be boring without secrets, don't you think?