Thoughts On M. Knight Shyamalan

With the release of his latest movie "Devil", I wanted to share my thoughts on the much maligned and controversial director, M. Knight Shyamalan. I must begin by saying I am an obvious mark for his movies since I am a fan of "scary" movies and a native of the Philadelphia area, where he shoots most of his films. Having laid my fandom on the table where all can see, any criticisms that my take is biased can be thrown aside as I will try my best to be objective.

I think one thing we can all agree on is the obvious success of The Sixth Sense. This is the movie that introduced us to the mysterious director and made us all ask "How the hell do you say this guy's name?" Following his seemingly overnight fame, M. Knight released a slew of movies that received less than favorable reviews from general moviegoers everywhere. What happened? Why did a director who was already being compared to Alfred Hitchcock go from being loved to hated so quickly? Were his movies really THAT bad?

To answer these questions we have to consider several factors. The first of these factors is what I think of as the "unknown director bump". It seems that whenever a new director comes on the scene with a relatively good movie, there is an instant buzz because it's unexpected. Who is this guy? Is he the next ___________ (fill in famous director name here)? There are countless examples of this phenomenon but Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception) comes to mind.

The second of these factors is the "gimmick" or what I'd rather call "signature" factor. M. Knight is of course known for his signature "twists" that seem to show up at the end of all of his movies. I think anytime you marginalize yourself by having something your fans will always expect in your movies you are taking a risk.

The last of these factors, that created a perfect storm for criticism, was hype or maybe in this case over-hype. I can still remember people running up to me hysterical about how amazing The Sixth Sense was and how it would "change my life" if I saw it. Anytime buzz crosses the line into over-hype area you are bound to have unrealistic expectations.

So what does all this mean? Well let's look a little closer. Being an unknown director when The Sixth Sense was released clearly helped its performance at the box office and by the time Unbreakable, M. Knight's second movie his the big screen, he had already achieved a certain level of fame so this unknown factor could no longer help him. This clearly has nothing to do with the actual quality of the movie itself but everything to do with the circumstances in which it was released.

Next we have the signature twist which fans had now come to expect as early as his second movie. This is where I really think things started to go downhill. This is simply my own speculation but I don't think that M. Knight ever wanted to be known for his "twists" in fact I think he would say that the fact his movies tend to have an underlying message that is not evident in the preview is not actually a twist but more of a way of getting people to think about an idea in a different way. For example, The Sixth Sense is not so much about a little boy seeing ghosts as it is a man who can't let go of life on Earth following his unexpected murder and Signs is not really about aliens so much as it's about a priest loosing his faith in God after his wife dies in a car accident. In this way, M. Knight finds an interesting and exciting way to tell a story about a relatively normal and perhaps less interesting occurrence.

Last but not least we have the hype that is associated with his movies, which in recent years has become more negative then positive as evidenced by the lack of M. Knight's name as part of the title of Devil. Again this hype is something that affects the perception of his movies, even before viewers enter the theatre that negatively impacts the reception of his movies. I have often said to critics if The Village, a movie that is often considered his worst, that if it had been released first instead of The Sixth Sense, it would have been received much differently.

In the end, I do love M. Knight's movies and I don't think they get a fair chance. Should he be in the same sentence as Hitchcock when discussing directors, probably not, but I find his creativity refreshing in a world where Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer are still allowed to make movies. If you enter theater with an open mind I think you'll find that he truly is a great storyteller.