Shyamalan
Added 2023-01-30 19:16:44 +0000 UTCWhat's your favorite M Night film (if any), and why?
Comments
Hm I'll have to check it out. I do enjoy the camp of Shyamalan I must admit. That said...I would like to return to Sixth Sense which felt a bit more mature.
Deepfocuslens
2023-02-01 18:40:57 +0000 UTCyeah I think it's a good movie. It's very campy too which is fun, and it achieves a nice balance. I don't mind the silliness of the water thing because...the rest of the film is so silly too.
Deepfocuslens
2023-02-01 18:40:21 +0000 UTCI am!
Deepfocuslens
2023-02-01 18:39:33 +0000 UTCYep, it was originally meant for tv, but was made into a film.
Deepfocuslens
2023-02-01 18:39:28 +0000 UTCHi Maggie I know that your a big fan of Mulholland drive. I have heard that it was originally going to be a tv series similar to twin peaks. Is this true? Was it ever released as a series. In a Australia it was only released as a feature film
anthony scully
2023-01-31 21:29:26 +0000 UTCWho’s ready to see Knock at the Cabin this weekend?
Lathan
2023-01-31 14:44:57 +0000 UTCI think that if/when you revisit it you'll re-evaluate it.
Alexandros Alexandropoulos
2023-01-31 08:11:27 +0000 UTCI gotta go with Signs. A lot of people shit on the water thing, but I don’t think that nitpick matters when I go back to rewatch it. The vortex of faith, doubt and grief is present in every character, so the spiritual themes feel very real to me. I also think it’s a balanced take on religious inner conflict because it’s not too preachy or too cynical. AND there’s really cool sci-fi/horror paranoia that heightens those themes and forces the protagonist Graham to confront and overcome an adversary that mirrors his inner conflict. From a technical standpoint, it is as beautiful and tense as Unbreakable, Split and The Sixth Sense, but I think that for me, it’s the writing that gives it the edge.
Jared Angcanan
2023-01-31 01:53:02 +0000 UTCI’ve always liked The Visit. It’s by no means his best movie - or even a great movie on its own, but I feel like the movie is exactly what it is trying to be. Something that I don’t think can be said for quite a few other movies in his catalogue. I think the Shyamalan movies are often overly dramatic and serious, especially when some of the endings or plot-twists are just too silly or head-scratching to leave a truly emotional impact. I feel like The Visit avoids this by embracing the silliness and being somewhat of a comedy, while also adding a genuinely compelling - although maybe a little predictable plot-twist. Also liked the found-footage style, viewing the whole movie through the lens of the kids was pretty effective and eerie..
Mees
2023-01-31 00:38:31 +0000 UTCThe Sixth Sense was a finely made, very spooky ghost story that was anchored by solid work from Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment. But unlike most people, I believe there to be an air of contrivance that hovers over that world-famous final twist, and I think Shyamalan was too overly invested in pulling the wool over our eyes with it, which ultimately undermines the film. Signs also has a few memorably unnerving moments, but it too suffers from a contrived third-act twist, one that doesn’t work nearly as well as the one in The Sixth Sense. The results are rather laughably forced and ridiculous. Of course, in terms of sheer ridiculousness, no Shyamalan film holds a candle to The Happening. Wolfman Brandon is right. The entire movie is just…bizarre. The concept of people breathing in air made by vengeful plants that makes them want to kill themselves should’ve been made as a comedy. The Village, I agree, is Shyamalan’s most underrated film, though it is by no means a perfect one. People were too hard on him at the time for making a film with yet another twist, but I think it to be one that works rather well. It leads to a lot of thematic questions about fear and security that the film is ultimately about. Still, I think the main takeaways are the great, gorgeously romantic score by James Newton Howard and the lovely performance of Bryce Dallas Howard. I didn’t even bother to see The Last Airbender or After Earth. And the clips I had seen of Lady in the Water made me believe it was a self-aggrandizing, eye-rollingly meta screed that Shyamalan composed as an attack on the critics who panned him. Split, I think, is his next-best film, though I credit its success more to James McAvoy’s outrageous, superbly committed performance as the DID-afflicted abductor of three girls. He is the main attraction, and Shyamalan is smart enough to stand back and let him rip, but praise must also be given to Anya Taylor-Joy, who provides a nice, soulful counterpoint to the mad theatrics going on. You need only look at her sad, pained eyes and feel invested in her survival. Some critics were put off by the aura of bad taste that hovers over its premise, but I think it suits Shyamalan just fine. In fact, it does him well to walk along the edge of exploitation. I won’t even get into Glass. It breaks my heart just thinking about it. Those characters deserved better. But yeah, Unbreakable is the closest, I think, that Shyamalan has ever come to a masterpiece. In some ways, he’s achieved that. There’s brilliance to be found in the film, and its inspired existential mystery premise. One only look at later comic book films—with their formulaic, cookie-cutter essence—to see how far above them Unbreakable is. With that film, Shyamalan created his own haunting, melancholy grounded universe of heroes and villains, one that is far more compelling and interesting than any MCU.
Bennett Oliver
2023-01-30 23:47:09 +0000 UTCUnbreakable, Split and Glass are a really interesting trilogy to watch, the quality drops with each instalment but the ideas remain intriguing and the actors are way better than the material really deserves.
Richard Lyth
2023-01-30 22:21:08 +0000 UTCI always figured this would be your choice haha even though...I've never seen this one. It's one that I notice people take more seriously than others, along with Sixth Sense. And it seemed more unique for Shyamalan at the time.
Deepfocuslens
2023-01-30 21:38:20 +0000 UTCThat's one of my favorites too. I think it's hilarious and a fun time. The score is actually really great I think, and underrated as a horror/thriller soundtrack.
Deepfocuslens
2023-01-30 21:37:02 +0000 UTCThis is one I've heard a lot about but...I never saw it. At the time a lot of people were spoiling the twist for me. Which annoyed me. But I can't even remember what it was now so....maybe now is the time to check it out lol.
Deepfocuslens
2023-01-30 21:36:25 +0000 UTCThat's one I've never seen, but the clips are classic. What you say sounds absolutely right, and I should check it out one of these days for a good time.
Deepfocuslens
2023-01-30 21:35:47 +0000 UTCThat's one I need to revisit. Two people recently have mentioned it, talking about how it was misunderstood in its day. I've been curious to see how I'd feel.
Deepfocuslens
2023-01-30 21:35:07 +0000 UTC“it’s like the Superman origin myth as reimagined by Stephen King” wonderfully stated ^^^
Trevor Lisa
2023-01-30 21:21:10 +0000 UTCThe Village. So unpredictable and dark, great despite its flaws. And the whole vibe was so chilling and really scary.
Alexandros Alexandropoulos
2023-01-30 20:39:03 +0000 UTCSigns!😱👽 It was terrifyingly intriguing. The aliens looked just like the ones that abducted me as a child. Kidding! But we do find aliens more haunting than ghosts in our home
You're Awesome
2023-01-30 20:32:10 +0000 UTCUnbreakable (2000) by far. Even during his mid career slump, Shyamalan has always been a gifted, skilled director, staging scenes in his supernatural thrillers with maximal tension and dread (even if they were undone by a ludicrous concept). But here, hot off the success of The Sixth Sense, he delivers the most gripping, fully realized work of his career. It helps that the foundation of his film is built on the most intriguing premise he ever conceived of—it’s like the Superman origin myth as reimagined by Stephen King—but Shyamalan infuses his story with a hypnotic, captivating gloom and melancholy, as well as a confident command of tone and atmosphere that he’s rarely shown since. And he expertly teases out the central mystery that haunts the entire film: Why did David Dunn (Bruce Willis), a seemingly ordinary lost soul of a man who’s estranged from his wife and son, survive a horrific train derailment without so much as a scratch on him? Yes, it suffers from Shyamalan’s usual screenwriting flaws (with his penchant for creaky scenarios and clunky, mannered dialogue, he remains his own worst enemy), but these are, for the most part, papered over by his extraordinarily assured direction. If anyone ever wanted to make the argument that superhero films can be art, I would sooner look to this film than anything made by Marvel or even DC, because I believe it to be, no more and no less, the greatest, most original superhero film ever made. And not for nothing, but it also contains some of the best work of Willis and Samuel L. Jackson.
Bennett Oliver
2023-01-30 20:25:42 +0000 UTCLol makes me want to watch it again with that in mind XD
You're Awesome
2023-01-30 20:25:32 +0000 UTCI really like Unbreakable and Split. But Split is definitely my favorite. Good acting and an interesting thrilling story. Just a lot of fun. I was so disappointed when Glass was awful. I was super excited for it.
kron
2023-01-30 20:12:31 +0000 UTCThe Happening is one of the most hilariously incomprehensible things I've ever seen. Everything from the acting, directing, and storytelling is so bizarre that it's like an alien's interpretation of how humans make movies and what you get is unintentional comedy gold. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see the mindset of Shyamalan during the making of this movie.
Wolfman Brandon
2023-01-30 20:02:31 +0000 UTCCheck it out: The Sixth Sense. Balanced family drama with horror and got great performances from everyone. It’s the movie that made him a household name for a reason. Unbreakable is good too.
Arthur Augustyn
2023-01-30 20:01:21 +0000 UTCThe final one.
PETER COLLINS
2023-01-30 19:46:43 +0000 UTCThe Village. Music. Humor. Twist. (I didn’t see any trailers. At a friends house when it came out on DVD and that’s what we watched). Still like it today.
Gabriel Woodward
2023-01-30 19:40:39 +0000 UTC
