M. Night Shyamalan

He's definitely a genre director -- and one who posesses an exceptionally honed mastery of dramatic tension. People that wrote off THE SIXTH SENSE as a simple twist film really have no understanding of it.

Love everything else by the guy as well -- we need more directors doing intelligent and subtle character pieces.

(waits for some buffoon to jump on and start screaming that Shyamalan sucks)

Tbailey I dub thee dumb Village guy! =)

I wouldn't call "Unbreakable" a horror film and haven't seen "Village" but I'll agree on the other two.

And I'll also counter by saying that the aliens in SIGNS are simply the macguffin -- they're not the story he's trying to tell.

He has talent. A lot of it. Enough said.

Great call on the macguffin!!! Night, borrowd heavily from Hitchcock, but like carpenter has done more with it than other directors. Unbreakable is one of my all time favorites and i actually watched signs last night for the first time in more than a year, and forgot how damn good it is. I think with all Night's films a suspension of disbelief is key to really enjoying them, and I agree about sitting and waiting while the aliens attack, I think maybe 50-60 people in an entire town would run out of their homes trying to do something, the rest wouldn't know what to do, look at what happened during 9/11 people stayed home, with their families.

I'm a big fan of M. Night's. His movies have some fantastic tension to them. I always like the characters and the continious slow burn that the stories revolve around.

I enjoyed Signs very much, I thought it had some great jump scares to it. However, the big weakness of the movie was completely ridiculus.


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In the end it's revealed that the aliens weakness is water. What the Hell??!! Water covers about 70% of the entire goddamn planet! These aliens have the intelligence to travel light years across the universe to study and eventually conquer our planet but they miss the fact that the majority of our planet is covered by their kryptonite? Give me a break! Water vapor accounts for as much as 4% of our air!






**********SPOILERS************



As I said, I actually enjoyed this movie a lot, but parts of the writing are ridiculus.

I simply LOVE Unbreakable. What a fantastic movie.

M Night is not mean-spirited enough ...

Admittedly, he can make a decent film, but I just can't get into his stuff .... kinda in the same way I never got in Hootie and the Blowfish ....

Well, the movie would have been a LOT shorter if it had been set in London...

Okay, here's the thing about the water that's always brought up. It's not the water. It's the bacteria. That's why the little girl says it tastes funny.

The other thing is, in an earlier draft (supposedly) it was explained more that the aliens had come from a dying planet and were just desperate for resources.

I think Shyamalan is a fantastic storyteller, and I'm absolutely dreading The Village, because it will be a fantastically told film with quite possibly one of the worst endings ever.

Well,
Yes, the fact that the aliens were beaten by water was kinda rediculous. I grant that.
The fact that Mr. Shymalian was connecting a tale of faith and truth to those rudimentary story functions was far more obvious to me:

Come on, the daughter's fear of water and the multitude of glasses of water laying around the house (quite ominously) and the fact that water turned out to be the factor which killed the aliens is pretty damned intentional to me. Furthernore, The entire conceit if the movie seems to be: "There is reason

Well,
Yes, the fact that the aliens were beaten by water was kinda rediculous. I grant that.
The fact that Mr. Shyamalan was connecting a tale of faith and truth to those rudimentary story functions was far more obvious to me:

Come on, the daughter's fear of water and the multitude of glasses of water laying around the house (quite ominously) and the fact that water turned out to be the factor which killed the aliens is pretty damned intentional to me. Furthernore, The entire conceit if the movie seems to be: "There is reason to have faith, out of the worst of your experience, comes the keys which will release you". Damn, the last words of Mel's wife were: "Swing away Merrill", and the son's asthma (which was much worried upon) was the exact thing that saved him from the poison of the aliens. Merrill "swung away" to kill the alien. It seems pretty clear what was being said in this movie.

One thing I would like to bring up (in a forum where it just wasn't " Signs sucked") is that the structure for this film was very similar to that of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, in that, most of the exterior occurances took place on TV, the entire attack took place on one location, involving gratuitous boarding up, and the monsters attacked in a way that reminds me of NOTLD.


Never the less, SIGNS scared the shit out of me when it wanted to, and made me cry, made me legitimately care about the characters at the same time. Tell Eli Roth or any of these new fucks to make me do that in one film.

I challenge them, and I'll be watching........


EOD

Heh - I was just about to say this myself. Quite possibly one of the worst bands to come out of the nineties.

I've immensely enjoyed Night's films thus far. Yes, there are some logical holes, but if you look close enough, you can find those with nearly *any* film, and people who get increasingly anal tend to get on my nerves -- it's a film, it's not real.

As for THE VILLAGE, I haven't seen it, haven't read any of the spoilers, and am going to go into it fresh. Those that are judging it in advance from spoilers read on the net are doing themselves a disservice. I saw THE SIXTH SENSE a month before it was released theatrically, had no preconceptions, and loved the hell out of it -- not for the twist(which I wasn't even looking for) but for the layered character work, exceptional dialogue and beautiful color pallette.

Not spoiling anything when I say this:

I did do myself a disservice in reading the spoilers. Trust me, there is no good that can come out of the ending M. Night has written.

But dude, have you *seen* the film and how it works onscreen? Are you positive that what you read hasn't changed during the actual production? There are a ton of variants here -- and what reads one way often plays differently.

I'm not saying that he won't fumble the ball, but I try not to judge anything on heresay.

Be fair -- *everyone* will suddenly give a shit the moment THE VILLAGE is released.

Incidentally, next Sunday the SCIFI Channel is airing a three-hour documentary on the man. Wonder what this buried secret is?

From Fango:

Sci Fi will also premiere the original documentary THE BURIED SECRET OF M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN Sunday, July 18 at 8 p.m. This three-hour documentary, directed by Nathaniel Kahn (of the critically praised MY ARCHITECT) and Callum Greene, is an in-depth examination of the writer/director’s life and films and how the two relate. The project promises to present “incredibly personal footage” and was partially shot on the set of Shyamalan’s upcoming chiller THE VILLAGE.

As I said before, I love the guys work. I truly think he's going to be one of the great genre director's till he's done. Signs was downright scary. That damn water thing just bothers the hell out of me though.

I'm definitely looking forward to The Village. When does it hit again?

Signs in London - that movie sounds about as short and funny as Signs In Seattle. Two classics just waiting to be made.

After seeing the teaser for "The Village" I was a bit offended. Being a big John Carpenter fan, I think they took the comparison a bit too far by using a *very* similar title card to "The Thing", and even using JC's general stamp on his pictures w/ M. Night's name atop the title.
I'm not protesting or anything, I do have a life, but I was a bit put off is all.
I like M. Night, I'm nowhere near declaring war against him like Faraci, I like "The Sixth Sense", and LOVE "Unbreakable" and "Signs".
I do have to shit on him for one thing though; I heard somewhere that when he was being considered for bringing Superman back to the big screen, his vision was to have the film take place in India and for it to be an "M. Night Film"...no. fucking. way.

I actually really dug that in the trailer, simply because "M. Night's.....The Village" did make me think of John Carpenter.

I'm a fan of the man. I really, really liked Signs when I first saw it and stilll do (though don't have a huge need to rewatch it much at all). Unbreakable is the one I need to see again. I liked it, but thought about 40 min coulda been chopped. Bruce's whole 'trouble' with his wife just could've been cut out if you asked me at the time. It just dragged. But, I have a feeling, that, like Signs, Unbreakable might be a whole lot better for me second time around.

And speaking of Signs...a little disappointed in the theatres when I saw it, but after a week or two thinking about it, I liked it better and now I really dig it.

I can't wait for The Village. I've heard all these things about bad endings (haven't read spoilers on purpose) but didn't they go and reshoot the ending about a month ago or something?

And in any case, you know what, I've got some faith in the man now and I'll withhold any judgement until after I've seen it. I do really dig the trailers and I love the new one-sheet with the 3 rules written on it.

The most fun thing about that little ghost film he did as a kid is that it brought back memories of all the goofy little horror flicks that I and my friends put together on our old Betacams. Pure nostalgia, and it offers hope for future filmmakers!

No, but he'll have to be even more talented than anyone's given him credit for thus far. To be fair, I do think at best, the ending will be a let down. At worst, it will damage his reputation.

There's a difference between reading "he was a ghost" or "they were the same people" and something that just screams out.... I don't know how to remain spoiler free. It's like M. Night is just obsessed with twists now. This could have been a straight great monster movie. It's not. That's all there is to it. He had to add in bullshit.

I don't know what to say....well, yes I do. Look at all you 'nipping at the heels' mugs. Granted, I might be a little pissed already because frankly there have been a lot of idiots judging this man's work by the standards of '""""HORROR DIRECTORS 101"""""". This guy is so far above the average horror director that it is just sick, and to have a bunch of individuals on this site actually fault him for.....well, frankly it seems to be intelligence and atypical horror filmmaking (and even more so, horror writing!), well, it makes my mojo bag crinkle!

WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THE FILM BEFORE YOU SPREAD YOUR DOOM SAYING HORSESHIT....Hey after all, Eli Roth is out there, ready to crank out another masterpiece like CABIN FEVER. Y'all gotta be salivating. In the meantime, leave Shyamalan the hell alone. I swear, man, to have THE SIXTH SENSE on a WORST HORROR FILMS OF ALL TIME LIST!?!?!?!??! Fer Chripes sake! Go off to your little delusional alternate universe in which all that is good is terrible and vice versa and I would understand.
Hey to each his/her own but ....FUCK!!!!

EOD

I in no wish wish to offend any of the individuals I didn't wish to offend with that last post. There are a lot of very intelligent and astute viewers/readers on this board. I recognize that and laud each and every one of you. Those I wish to offend are the lovely folks who wish to tear down directors and writers for doing something 'GASP', atypical in modern horror.......and you know who you are.



EOD

Re: M. Night Shyamalan

He hasn't proven himself to be a maverick yet. Let's see what happens after his first box office failure.
Carpenter has the balls to push through and make quirky subversive shit no matter what the receipts (They Live, Big Trouble). So far, Night has found incredible success following his muse. But a true maverick follows it regardless of the cost.

The man should stop giving himself acting gigs in his movies.

I'm a fan of his work, even if the movies are all hype.

I thought Sixth Sense was competant, and I reall really love Unbreakable.

To me, it's a beautiful movie.

I also enjoy Signs immensly, and I think the family relationship shown is very very touching.

I don't have a lot of hope for The Village, based on what I've heard, but I'm looking forward to seeing it all the same.

VERY true...

But put this guy in more...


"It's called 'probing'..."

Why? TONS of directors do it, and I don't see anything wrong with it. Hell, Hitchcock had cameos in virtually every film he ever did. And honestly, Shyamalan has shown in his brief appearances that he can act circles around Tarantino.

I know damn well that if I ever have the opportunity to direct one of my own scripts, I'm certainly going to give myself some sort of small role.

Translation: You have not seen the film and have absolutely no idea how the ending or any other scene will play out in context of the film itself. Instead, you have only read spoilers on the ever-reliable internet (I mean, c'mon, it's ALWAYS true if you read it online, right?) and have decided to prejudge based solely on that.

I mean, just so we're clear.

Cameos are fine and all but the pretty good sized role he gave himself in signs was horrible. It was a pretty important part and his acting ability is pretty sad.

At the very least Tarantino has some fun with his roles.

Cameos are fine and all but the pretty good sized role he gave himself in signs was horrible. It was a pretty important part and his acting ability is pretty sad.

At the very least Tarantino has some fun with his roles.

I guess it's all subjective then, because I thought he nailed it and did a fine job in SIGNS, whereas I feel that Tarantino is one of the worst actors alive. QT is pure cardboard in pretty much everything. I thought Shyamalan gave a nicely balanced performance.

I just think the guy looks lost when he is on screen. Well only for Signs becaues thats an actual role.

That's why I love the man's work. Unbreakable is an achievement for almost any writer/director, IMO.