The name M. Night Shyamalan has been something of a hot topic from the very beginning of the 52-year-old filmmaker’s career — though for a long time it was considered a “pop-cultural punch line.” It isn’t just that people have internalised a certain brand of misguided criticism against his films (“There’s always a dumb twist!”), but that his work has polarised audiences and critics across the globe for decades, their relentless sincerity proving difficult for some to countenance. But for all the controversy around each release, it should be uncontroversial to say Shyamalan’s thrill-filled oeuvre is far more interesting and wide-ranging than many filmmakers of his cohort.
At his best, he’s a master of a distinct visual style that has only continued to evolve and sharpen since The Sixth Sense, his first bonafide box office hit. But even looking back at the works perceived as failures, there’s still his undeniable penchant for suspense, under-appreciated sense of humour and of course, the twists. From Praying with Anger, his 1992 debut, to Knock at the Cabin (his latest apocalyptic horror) — here’s every Shyamalan feature, ranked.
15. The Last Airbender (2010)
It’s hard to deny that The Last Airbender, Shyamalan’s adaptation of the much-beloved animated series of the same name, is sort of a flop. The film is a miscalculation on most levels — albeit one with some well-crafted action set pieces — that ends up looking like a bit of a hack job. Whatever you think of it (and you’ll likely think it’s bad), there’s something to be said about a film that never comes across as if it was created anonymously.
14. Wide Awake (1998)
Shyamalan’s sophomore feature is a fascinating oddity; somewhere between a wholesome family film about coming-of-age and an existential drama about the meaning of life and whether or not God exists. It’s got all of the questions of faith in something larger than oneself that would come to define a large chunk of the filmmaker’s career, but it is something of a tonal mystery.
13. Praying With Anger (1992)
For all its flaws (and the absurdly low quality of the file one has to watch to experience it in 2023), you kind of can’t help but admire Shyamalan’s debut feature. Praying With Anger is blunt and melodramatic to a fault — following an Indian-American teenager studying in India who finds himself at odds with his roots — but, despite its heavy-handed writing, you can see the promise of Shyamalan’s eye behind the camera, and in the sincere lead performance of the director himself.
12. After Earth (2013)
While it does fall on the lower end of the spectrum of Shyamalan’s career, After Earth is under-appreciated as a necessary stepping stone in Will Smith’s acting career. Will’s performance, alongside his son’s, make up one of the most interesting facets of this action-y sci-fi drama — the former trying desperately to hide his natural charisma while the then-teenaged Jaden tries to capture the kind of performance his father would give. They’re certainly much better to watch than the ugly CGI.
11. The Happening (2008)
Despite questionable performances from Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel, The Happening (about an inexplicable natural disaster that causes mass suicides) is pretty damn good. Its tonal shifts toss the viewer between pure dread and rib-aching humour. The visual language, meanwhile, is breathtaking. Admittedly it’s a type of movie Shyamalan does better before and after this one, but it still ends up being more affecting than it has any right to be.
10. Lady in the Water (2006)
Some might argue that Lady in the Water, a weird little fairy tale that reads a bit like a Stephen King novel, is where Shyamalan fell off as a filmmaker. Those people would be wrong. Starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Paul Giamatti, it’s an idealistic movie about coming together within our societies, regardless of our identities and personal baggage, and bringing change to a world that has become something of a nightmare. Evergreen stuff.
9. Split (2016)
Some folks might think of Split as something of an ugly middle-child within the Eastrail 177 trilogy, but there’s something to be said about how beautifully it stands alone. James McAvoy, in his ever-shifting role, and Anya Taylor-Joy, in a gorgeous muted performance, bring to life one of Shyamalan’s most thrilling explorations of how trauma impacts individuals differently, shaping them and hardening them to prepare for a world that seeks to harm them.
8. Signs (2002)
No film better exemplifies Shyamalan’s pet theme of faith (specifically the loss and recovery of it) than Signs. The filmmaker revels in toying with what is on and off-screen when it comes to the alien presence, but the human reactions to this uncomfortably changing and insecure world are the movie’s true highlight. The way these characters grow is so earnest, and the way the film’s thrills are so immaculately crafted that it’s hard not to get caught up in all the silence and beauty.
7. Old (2022)
Old is where Shyamalan started pushing the limits of his frame in a new way. It’s as much a horror film as it is a melodrama, and the way he takes something as goofy as the meme concept of “a beach that makes you old” and turns it into a compelling tale about family and human cruelty is nothing to be sniffed at. Its effects are as playful as they are horrific, embracing body horror in the best way. While some exposition drags the film down a bit, there are moments of genuine emotion — notably between Gael García Bernal and Vicky Krieps’ characters, and how their fates play out.
6. Unbreakable (2000)
Unbreakable is more than just the superhero origin story we deserve, or even the villain origin story we deserve, it’s what we should be demanding from every filmmaker attempting of these types of stories. It’s as close to a real Superman story for the modern age we’ll ever get, with both Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson’s performances being some of their best. Practically every scene as revelatory as the last.
5. The Visit (2015)
Watching The Visit, a found-footage horror following two teen siblings, feels less like a traditional “return to form” and more of a true head-over-heels dive into what it means to fall back in love with making movies again – without studio interference. Shyamalan is at his most formally playful here, using both aesthetics and narrative to explore what it means to be a filmmaker and what it means to make a film. Funny, touching, and outright inventive, every bit of The Visit feels like a creator acknowledging their perceived flaws, and turning them to strengths.
4. Glass (2019)
A fascinating exploration of a number of themes, from living in a surveillance state to the way that those in power suppress humanity from unlocking their true potentials. It’s at once a psychological drama, an action movie where many of the thrills happen off-screen, and a comic book crossover film with the kind of magic and inventiveness that has eluded Marvel so much over the last decade. Shyamalan not only reinterprets the images of his past, but uses them to create a promising new future.
3. Knock at the Cabin (2023)
Shyamalan’s latest is, quite possibly, his most mature film to date. Though many have lobbed accusations of the film as homophobic, the filmmaker is very conscious about what kind of distinctly queer film he’s created with Knock at the Cabin. His consistent themes — intra family relationships, otherness, faith, communication breakdown — are depicted through the eyes of individuals who are forced to exist, to survive, to assimilate, and to love, in a world that loathes them. The formal inventiveness we saw in Glass and Old has only continued to improve and, not only does the film feature one of his best ensembles to date, every actor brings such a disarming level of humanity to their characters that it morphs this from your standard parable into something worth watching over and over, just to discover all the nuances.
2. The Village (2004)
To say that The Village is one of the most romantic films of all time isn’t a stretch — it’s just true, actually. How else can you describe a story, set in a 19th Century Pennsylvanian settlement, about how love and relationships can both flourish and wither within a caged environment? It’s in the way Sigourney Weaver gazes at William Hurt, ever in pain, knowing they cannot touch. It’s how Bryce Dallas Howard stretches her arm out into an empty night, knowing beyond any reasonable doubt that Joaquin Phoenix’s hand will once again be in hers. It’s not just a strange world that feels eerily real, it’s a beautiful, grounded tale that connect because of how real the characters feel underneath all the fantasy and horror.
1. The Sixth Sense (1999)
It has to be said: the film that Shyamalan became a household name for creating is, ultimately, his greatest. No one would blame the average viewer for thinking that The Sixth Sense is one of those overhyped, overrated works, but it is not so: the movie is a truly haunting melodrama that immediately captures your attention and never lets go. From the performances and connections between Haley Joel Osment with both Bruce Willis and Toni Collette, to the way every single image on screen serves to deepen the film’s unique atmosphere and narrative, it can make you gasp at a ghastly visage one moment, and weep at the way it explores connection the next; between mother and child, between husband and wife, between dead and alive. It’s perfect, plain and simple.