A Bloody Good Time 6.12.08: M. Night Shyamalan Franchise Breakdown

Posted by Joseph Lee on 06.12.2008

Just before The Happening hits theaters, let's look at Shyamalan's other movies.

Welcome to A Bloody Good Time! Last week I gave a brief history of Full Moon Entertainment. There was only one comment that I noticed, and that was a question wondering if I would cover Fear Itself on 411. I didn't get the chance to provide any actual review, but as promised here are my thoughts here on A Bloody Good Time.



Fear Itself Episode 1: The Sacrifice
Directed By: Breck Eisner(Sahara)
Starring: Jesse Plemons, Mircea Monroe, Stephen Martines, Rachel Miner, Jeffrey Pierce, Michelle Molineaux
Story: Four men travel to an old fort where they confront three women and an ancient vampire.

So here's what I think. Not bad for a debut episode. Breck Eisner doesn't exactly have the horror cred that other directors in this series have (it used to be Masters of Horror) but he is remaking both The Crazies and Creature From the Black Lagoon so clearly he loves it to some degree. His effort here was well done, from a direction standpoint. I was surprised at how much gore was left intact for NBC although I think that it could be better uncut. As it is, decent episode, could be better. It felt rushed and I knew the end was going to be like it was. I'd give it a B.

Also, that theme song has GOT to go. I miss the Masters of Horror theme. The imagery is spooky and all but hearing Serj from System of a Down keep repeating "la la la la" is annoying. Tonight is Brad Anderson's Spooked which will automatically be better because of the director behind it. He's got some major horror cred with Session 9 and The Machinist, which also proves he won't need gore to tell a solid ghost story, which it looks like this is.

And now, onto this week's column. It's another franchise breakdown, of sorts, as I go through the films of M. Night Shyamalan. You may remember the last time I talked about him, I mentioned how The Sixth Sense was overrated. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. Regardless of my opinion, this isn't about what I think of the director or his films. As franchise breakdowns go, I'm going to analyze the movies critically and financially, and at the end provide a preview of his effort that arrives on Friday.



M. Night Shyamalan was born in India but raised in Pennslyvania. At an early age he wanted to be a filmmaker, often taking his Super-8 and filming a lot of home movies (much like Sam Raimi did). In 1992, he had his first movie in which he wrote, directed and starred. It was called Praying with Anger. His second movie, a dramatic comedy, was called Wide Awake(1998). He also wrote the screenplay for Stuart Little. But you don't want to hear about a talking mouse.



The first film to achieve success for M. Night was a horror film. The Sixth Sense(1999) was about a young boy(Haley Joel Osment) who could see and talk to dead people. He discusses this with his psychiatrist(Bruce Willis), who is having marital problems after a traumatic incident with a disturbed patient some time before. The movie goes on to show each dealing with their own problems, although the young boy's tends to be more horrific.

Besides being a decent little ghost story with some terrific acting, The Sixth Sense is known for introducing M. Night to everyone, and because of this, it also introduced M. Night's twist endings. I won't give it away (but you'd think you would have watched it by now) but the twist at the end is certainly something you don't see coming. The entire purpose is to build towards this twist (and you can tell this on repeat viewings) as everything was carefully plotted to arrive at the dramatic conclusion.

Critics loved it. It ended up with a 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and the critical consensus reads: "M Night Shayamalan's The Sixth Sense is a twisty ghost story with all the style of a classical Hollywood picture, but all the chills of a modern horror flick." It was nominated for six Academy Awards, which as we've covered here, is rare for horror. The film went onto earn $672 million worldwide, making it one of the highest grossing films ever. (27th, as a matter of fact). The phrase, "I See Dead People" has become embedded in pop culture.



Next would be M. Night's take on the superhero film. Unbreakable opened one year later in 2000. Bruce Willis returned to work with Shyamalan again, and Samuel L. Jackson was cast as his co-star. The movie features one man surviving a massive train wreck, and is completely unharmed. He soon realizes he cannot be harmed by anything (except one particular element). His son thinks he should be a superhero, while the enigmatic Elijah Price(Jackson) wants to train him to develop his powers.

This film had a twist ending as well, although it's been called out for not being as good a twist. Unbreakable actually was rated not as high as The Sixth Sense, although this could be as a result of the film's promotion, which was supposed to be for a superhero movie, but the popular of Shyamalan's previous film made it marketed more like that.

It has a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus of: "With a weaker ending, Unbreakable is not as good as The Sixth Sense. However, it is a quietly suspenseful film that intrigues and engages, taking the audience through unpredictable twists and turns along the way". It made $248 million worldwide, but foreign sales were much higher than domestic (which barely made back the budget). Outside of a few references, it's not as popular as the previous film and is more or less forgotten when discussing Shyamalan's films.



Shyamalan's next film would be back to the horror side of things, with the alien film Signs(2002). This time it starts Mel Gibson (in one of his last acting roles, at least for now), Joaquin Phoenix and a pre-fame Abigail Breslin. Gibson stars as Graham Hess, a man who has lost his faith in religion and is generally depressed all the time. Soon crop circles appear in his field and aliens begin to be spotted worldwide, including in his home. It's mainly about one family's efforts to fend off these monsters invading their home.

Signs didn't really have a twist, unless you count the alien's weakness as one (I don't, but I do think it's stupid). Without a twist to build to, Signs actually comes forth as one of Shyamalan's stronger efforts, thanks to building suspense and having an A-list actor like Mel Gibson holding down the acting. Say what you want about him as a person, but he's great when it comes to films. The fact that everything is played low-key (for example, we never actually see the ship or any big special effects) helps it.

Critics didn't like this one as much as The Sixth Sense but a lot more than Unbreakable. It has a 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critical consensus that says: "With Signs, Shyamalan proves once again an expert at building suspense and giving audiences the chills.". The film was one of the highest grossing in 2002 (at #6, behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding and above Austin Powers in Goldmember), making 408 million worldwide. In an interesting note, it's behind The Sixth Sense in earnings, but has made more than The Village and Unbreakable combined. Speaking of which...



When advertisements began for The Village(2004) I had no idea what to expect. The people couldn't go out into the woods, something about monsters...but I never ended up watching it. It just looked weird to me. At any rate, it is about a group of people in the 1890's who are terrified to leave the village, due to monsters hiding outside. However not everything as as it seems, as the elders are keeping secrets. The film starred Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, Adrien Brody, Sigourney Weaver and William Hurt, which is a pretty solid cast.

The Village featured not one, not two, but THREE plot twists. The last of them all has been mocked by anyone who watched it (and I do know what it is, and it is very bad). Roger Ebert hilariously said, "To call the ending an anticlimax would be an insult not only to climaxes but to prefixes" In addition to a bad ending, critics didn't enjoy The Village as a whole. It currently sits at 42% on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus says: "The Village is appropriately creepy, but Shyamalan's signature twist ending disappoints." It earned 256 million worldwide, but once again, it was only able to make a profit after foreign sales come in.

But M. Night wasn't done yet, and gave us what is his most ambitious (for lack of a better word) film to date.



You've got to give Shyamalan credit for one thing. He has a clever habit of repeating actors in two movies in a row. Bruce Willis in his first two, Joaquin Phoenix in his next two, and now this is Bryce Dallas Howard's second Shyamalan film. Lady in the Water is about a caretaker of an apartment building (played by Paul Giamatti) who encounters a young girl being chased by monsters. He has to figure out how to send her back where she came from, and protect her. At least I think that's what it's about it...I can't really make heads or tails of it.

To call this movie confusing is an understatement, and I'm not sure even Shyamalan really knew where he was going with this. There really isn't a twist, I don't think, but again, this was a mess. He was trying a variety of different things but none of them seemed to work. Not even Giamatti could save it, and he's awesome.

Critics agreed with me, as they bashed the story, the arrogance of Shyamalan (who gave himself a strong supporting role) and the overall stupidity of the whole thing. It was nominated for Razzies, that's how bad it was. Those are only given out to the worst films. It only earned 72 million worldwide (42 domestic), not even earning back it's production budget, let alone the advertising costs. On Rotten Tomatoes it's the worst of all his films, at 24%. The consensus reads: "A far-fetched story with little suspense and unconvincing scenarios, Lady In The Water feels contrived, pretentious, and rather silly."



Shyamalan returns this Friday with his first R-rated horror film: The Happening. I don't know, I'm a little excited for this one, which is something I don't say often with his movies. Maybe it's the R-rating, or the fact some really weird stuff happens in the trailer. Maybe it's Mark Whalberg. Either way, it should be interesting to see if this one goes in the direction of The Sixth Sense or Lady in the Water.

Here's the trailer, in all it's red-band glory. I'll see you next week.