Director Deep Dive: M. Night Shyamalan
One thing I definitely wanted to bring with me into the new year as I revamped the direction of my site was the deep dive into specific actors, writers and directors. And while part of me enjoyed the aghast looks I got when I told people I hadn’t seen The Sixth Sense, I decided to finally fill in one of the biggest gaps in my movie knowledge: the king of plot twists himself - M. Night Shyamalan.
One thing to note: before 2023, the only movies of his I had seen were Unbreakable, Glass and Old. Just throwing that out there. (And the ranking will be updated once I see Knock at the Cabin.)
Totally Definitive, Absolutely Flawless Ranking of M. Night Movies
9. The Happening
On top of this being a movie of questionable quality at best, it’s unsettling to the point of being unenjoyable. The dialogue (always Shyamalan’s Achille’s heel) is choppy and forced, the plot is nonsensical and almost no one (including some normally extremely competent actors) is likable. Plot holes abound and it’s difficult to lean into any aspect of the “twist,” especially when it just….stops. No true resolution, just, you know, everything is fine now.
8. The Lady In The Water
The only reason this movie ranks higher than The Happening is it doesn’t involve an alarming amount of mass suicides. Once again, stilted dialogue and an overwhelming question of, “but…why?” cover up any nugget of a good movie that may have been at the core of it. This also weirdly felt like the goal of this entire film was to give the director a larger role in one of his productions beyond his normal cameo. The main thing in its favor is that there is a so-bad-it’s-good vibe that pushes it slightly up from last place.
7. Glass
Considering how much I enjoyed both Unbreakable and - surprisingly - Split, it’s almost impressive how much the third story in this universe falls flat almost immediately. In a world with more superhero movies than we can handle, it takes a lot to stand out in a good way. Glass is like the opposite of Avengers: End Game. We bring the team together, except the result is extraordinarily disappointing. Because, you know, sometimes a hero’s biggest kryptonite is actually….a puddle.
6. Old
As one of my favorite podcasts calls this movie, it is, in fact, about “The Beach That Makes You Get Old.” The problem is that the explanation for it is a total letdown. Also, I have to put out there that one of the main characters is a rapper named Mid-sized Sedan, and there is a scene where in the span of six minutes, two kids “grow up,” have sex, one gets pregnant and has birth and yet they still have the mental capacity of the 7 or 8 year olds they started the tale out as. Oh, does that sound insane? Good. Then you’re prepared for the rest of it.
5. Signs
It’s very difficult to watch projects with Mel Gibson without having two very conflicting and very odd biases - his very concerning behavior in his real life and “oh hey, that’s the voice of John Smith.” However, we are getting into the part of this list that contains movies I felt were more good than bad. One of the best things Shyamalan did for this movie was keeping the ETs somewhat in the dark - the imagination filled in much more than the CGI at that time would have been able to. Kept it from being too corny and decidedly in the spooky zone.
4. Split
I refused to see this movie for a while because the idea of mental illness being the “motivation” of a man to do monstrous things. While I know that does happen in real life, it hits differently in stories like this. Thankfully, I was convinced to give it a shot and it was a lot more than that. Plus, I’ve become an Anya Taylor-Joy stan and seeing her in this was a huge pro for this movie. She and James McAvoy are great, and while it’s a seriously unsettling movie, there’s more to it than I would have expected.
3. Unbreakable
It would have been easy to write this movie off, calling it just barely better than Glass, but Unbreakable has one huge thing on its side: its release date. For coming out in 2000, it’s truly impressive. We didn’t have that many superhero films to compare it to, so it seemed groundbreaking. It’s quintessential Bruce Willis, and this is one of the Shyamalan’s best that helped give him his reputation of big reveals and plot twists.
2. The Sixth Sense
If we’re going to talk big reveals, we don’t have to look much further than The Sixth Sense, the grandaddy of plot twists. I suspect I did it a huge disservice by not seeing it until this year, because I knew what was coming, and it felt so poorly concealed. If you were seeing it close to when it actually was in theaters, I could absolutely see it being groundbreaking. Unfortunately, I am so steeped in pop culture that I knew the exact trajectory before I even pressed play.
1. The Village
I suspect this will be my most controversial rankings. This is definitely an unpopular opinion, but I think I enjoyed this one the most based on two things: M. Night’s dialogue always feels stiff and forced, which actually made sense for the setting and circumstances of this film, and it is one of the most fleshed out explanations of his twists that I encountered throughout this adventure. Combine those elements with a shockingly large cast of stars, and I feel confident saying this was one of the best Shyamalan movies, no matter what the Rotten Tomatoes ratings may say.
Agree? Disagree? Want to fight me? Feel free to do so in the comments! I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts.