A couple days ago I was watching The Happening, one of M. Night Shyamalan’s lesser known movies.
M. Night has had one of the most interesting careers in filmmaking.
He wasn’t even 30 years old when one of his most successful movies, The Sixth Sense came out.
He followed up with other box office hits like Signs, The Village and Unbreakable.
All those movies were not only successful in the box office, but were enjoyed by both critics and audiences alike.
But then something strange happened during the last decade.
His films both tanked in the box office and fans weren’t satisfied with them either.
To name a few – Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender and After Earth.
The latter two were M. Night’s most expensive films to date.
He totally went “Hollywood” on those films, losing his original contained roots in some of his previous works.
Last summer, M. Night embarked on one of his most contained projects of all time, a found footage film titled The Visit.
In an interview about his recent work, M. Night mentioned he wanted to go back to his roots of the old school, horror-type films.
After a struggle lasting nearly ten years, M. Night was able to repurpose himself and get traction back in his work.
Currently he’s working on a film with Blumhouse Productions, who co-produced The Visit.
M. Night has another film in the works which is going to star Bruce Willis, who of course we can’t forget from The Sixth Sense.
Like the old-saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Sure the $150 million studio project starring Will Smith (After Earth) is appealing, but if that’s not in your wheelhouse, maybe it’s not best to go that route
Hate him or love him, M. Night Shyamalan has made some of the coolest genre films in modern cinema.
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I’ll see you on the “inside” soon!
Shant Yegparian
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