Glass opens on January 18th, and I couldn't be more excited. As such, I'm featuring a series on M. Night Shyamalan's catalog of work. Not every movie will be featured; only my favorites. Stay tuned and enjoy this peek into the mildly obsessed.
Despite some very notable exceptions, I've always been a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's work, and for many years, it's seemed as though I was the only one. His career has been one of controversy: once called the next Hitchcock or Spielberg, he has been alternately lauded and reviled. I've always felt that he and his work were deeply misunderstood. Still, with the opening of Glass (the final chapter in what has been dubbed the "Eastrail 177 Trilogy") and the recent success of Split and The Visit, the message is clear: liking M. Night is back in style.
How vindicating.
A quick history lesson
As of January 18th, this unique filmmaker will have made more than 16 movies, on two-thirds of which he serves as writer, director, and producer. His breakout hit The Sixth Sense propelled him to fame overnight and set a high bar not only for his career but also for the horror genre. It remained the highest-grossing horror movie of all time for nearly two decades when it was finally knocked out of the spot in 2017 by the remake of It. Shyamalan had even greater financial success with Unbreakable, which turned the superhero origin story on its head.
Though his next couple of movies, Signs and The Village, were also financially successful, there was a decline in positive critical reception, and fans began to turn their backs on the writer-director. Suddenly, people felt the movies were predictable, the twists were unsatisfactory, and Shyamalan's Vonnegut-esque predilection for writing himself into his movies was dubbed "douchey." The shine was off the penny, and no matter what Shyamalan did, it seemed he would never be forgiven for not turning out another The Sixth Sense.
At least that's how it looked to me.
