Trivia: At the ranger's office when the security guard was stealing the medical supplies, you see a cameo of M. Night Shamalayan in the reflection of the glass.
Trivia: When the floor is torn up and Noah has escaped, there are bird feathers everywhere. Next scene when Noah is in the hole and there are bird feathers everywhere as well. Toward the beginning of the movie when Ivy, Noah, and Lucius are at the resting rock, Noah pulls berries out of his pocket. Attached to the berries momentarily are feathers, they fall to the ground almost unnoticeable. I believe that possibly MNS wanted to give the hint that Noah already had access to the monster costume. It is also possible that Noah picked them up in the woods when he found the berries. I am leaning toward the first explanation.
Trivia: M. Night Shyamalan likes to use red in his movies as a symbol of something of significance (see trivia for Sixth Sense and the color red). Here it signified "a bad color" for the people of the village, and they needed to hide this color from one who should not be spoken of, i.e. the "monster."
Trivia: The MPAA gave the film an "R" rating due to a single sound effect, which was later removed and the movie then went back down to a PG-13 rating.
Answer: No, they establish early in the movie that the boy died of a disease. The reason Lucius keeps requesting permission to go to the town to get medicine is to prevent someone else from getting the same thing. They are very effectively cut off from the outside world. The purpose of the newspaper report and radio news heard in the guard shack is to lend credence to their motives for establishing the village (ie, to escape a violent society).
Gabbo