Warning: Spoilers ahead!
No one makes movies like M. Night Shyamalan. From his dramatic third-act twists and crises of faith, to his recurring supernatural themes, Shyamalan‘s work may range in quality but is never boring. Is there anybody who has made a ghost story quite like The Sixth Sense? Today, we’re gonna look at the top five selections in this auteur’s resume.
5. The Village (2004)
Audiences and critics sure were divided on this one (just look at the Rotten Tomatoes scores). As the film was marketed as a legitimate folk-horror film, viewers were surprised — and to an extent, disappointed — when the story turned out to be more of a period-piece romantic drama, which also touched on issues of grief and loss. The premise follows an isolated community that steers clear of mysterious creatures referred to as Those We Do Not Speak Of. Unexpectedly, a young man named Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) is stabbed, which compels his great love, Ivy (then-newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard), to venture into the larger world for medicine.
The biggest gripe that this movie’s critics had with it was its twist ending. It’s revealed that the story actually takes place in modern day. That’s right: The elders who founded this village all suffered immeasurable losses whilst living in the towns, and they grouped together to create their own simplistic paradise, supposedly free from harm and tragedy. Moreover, Those We Do Not Speak Of were simply villagers dressed in costume to scare their fellow citizens into staying put. While this is certainly among Shyamalan‘s more absurd twists — though I think Old tops it — I think it fits the story’s bizarre yet poignant tone all too well. I feel like a lot of us have had moments where we wish there was a world in which there was no violence, no cruelty, no murder. Wouldn’t it be appealing if that world were a reality?
What also works are the committed filmmaking and performances. In particular, William Hurt is as grounded and sincere as he ever was as Edward Walker, Ivy’s father. Bryce Dallas Howard is also sensational as the young blind woman. There’s never a second where you don’t like or root for her. Not to mention the technical aspects of this are spectacular. Legendary composer James Newton Howard received the film’s sole (and well-deserved) Oscar nomination. He relies frequently on strings to create a symphonic odyssey of love, sorrow, and hope that reaches deep into your soul. Roger Deakins also makes this easily the most visually stunning amongst Shyamalan’s work. Every shot and camera movement tells a story about the characters, what drives them, and their community. If you haven’t watched this one in a while, give it another go.
4. The Visit (2015)
Welcome to the weirdest week you’ll ever spend with your grandparents. In this horror-comedy, siblings Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) travel to stay with their Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop-Pop (Peter McRobbie) for the first time. Becca, a budding documentarian, plans to film all of it. As the week progresses, the senior citizens display increasingly strange behavior, and the kids begin to question their safety.
Produced by low-budget horror juggernaut Blumhouse Productions, this is a return to Shyamalan‘s roots. It’s horror that’s grounded in relatable and emotional character development. There’s an even balance of laughs and scares. You’re consistently kept on your toes about these old people. The performances are stellar, particularly from Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie. The twist is a genuine shocker and leads to an equally intense climax. If you want a solid PG-13 entryway into the genre, this is a solid place to start.
3. Split (2017)
Boy, was this a wild ride. After he got back into audiences’ and critics’ good graces with The Visit, Shyamalan gave us this twisted psychological thriller. The story centers around a young woman named Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), who finds herself and her friends kidnapped by a man named Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), who had 23 different personalities.
I need to get this out of the way first: Split, from the moment it was released, got flack for its depiction of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), which is warranted. Additionally, I will notify everyone reading that this film is pure fantasy. That being said, as a horror film, it is intelligently crafted. With Taylor-Joy and McAvoy‘s magnificent performances at the center, you root for Casey the whole way through and itch to figure out what drives Kevin. Betty Buckley is also stellar as Dr. Karen Fletcher, Kevin’s therapist who strives to help the troubled man in front of her. It’s a twisted ride that’s hard to shake off.
2. The Sixth Sense (1999)
Can’t forget the Shyamalan classic that kind of started it all. After two lesser-known efforts with Praying with Anger and Wide Awake, he finally achieved widespread critical and commercial success with The Sixth Sense. The story follows a child psychologist, Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis, in one of his finest performances), who strives to help a young boy named Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) who is plagued with the ability to see ghosts. Meanwhile, Malcolm also navigates his fractured marriage to Anna (Olivia Williams), and Cole traverses his equally shaky relationship with his mother, Lynn (Toni Collette).
Many praise this film — deservedly so — for its earth-shattering twist. Malcolm turns out to have been a ghost the whole time. That’s right, he was murdered in the opening of the film! Unsurprisingly, that revelation puts every prior event into a new perspective. More importantly, it creates an overwhelming sense of poignancy on a second viewing. With everything we now know, The Sixth Sense feels less like a standard supernatural thriller and more like a grounded drama where two different people come to terms with themselves. Malcolm copes with the end of his marriage, and Cole struggles to come out about his special power to his mom. There’s an underlying relatability to these storylines that draws me, and I’m sure many others, back for more.
1. Unbreakable (2000)
Fresh off of his box-office and critical success and several Oscar nominations for The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan crafted a new spin on the superhero drama. Once again starring Bruce Willis, it follows a security guard named David Dunn, who is the miraculous and sole survivor of a train crash. Even more strangely, he’s somehow got not one scratch on him. Soon thereafter, a mysterious comic book art curator named Elijah Price (Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson) tracks David down and reveals to him that he may have special powers he never knew existed.
Strangely enough, this film suffered from critics’s comparisons to the filmmaker’s previous smash hit. While both films star Bruce Willis, and both do technically deal with the supernatural, the two could otherwise not be more different. Even more so than The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable focuses on the concept of identity. David’s life — including his relationship with his wife and son (Robin Wright and Spencer Treat Clark, respectively) — feels stagnant, all because he doesn’t know who he is. As an LGBTQ+ person who saw this as I was still struggling to come to grips with my bisexuality, that underlying confusion and despair resonated deeply. But that’s the thing about this masterpiece — no matter who you are, you can find something to relate to. It also backs off on having any big action sequences and allows you to therefore bask in the characters, performances and themes. As Quentin Tarantino once said, “What if Superman was here on Earth and didn’t know he was Superman?”
Conclusion
I don’t know if there’ll ever be another artist like Shyamalan. And that’s a great thing. Even when he’s at his worst — like with the hilariously awful The Happening — there’s a passionate conviction in his screenwriting and direction that carries you headlong through the narrative, waiting to see what crazy idea he conjures up next. No story or character idea is too absurd, and as these selections show, oftentimes that mindset can pay dividends. But either way, you can’t fault any artist who believes so strongly in their visions.
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