Love him or hate him, there’s no escape from M. Night Shyamalan. With fifteen films spanning over two decades, the writer and director is always unapologetically himself. To some, Shyamalan is a creative and often misunderstood genius with a pure artistic eye and an obsession with themes of trauma, family, and the human condition. To others, Shyamalan is a hack, a director so full of himself that his response to criticism was to write himself into a movie as the world’s greatest writer.
Regardless, Shyamalan has and continues to leave his mark on cinema, meaning that audiences have and will continue to look at his work with adoration and ire. According to those viewers and their reviews on Letterboxd, here’s how Shyamalan’s films stack up.
15 The Last Airbender – 1.1/5
Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender is infamous for being one of the worst film adaptations of all time, and for good reason. Condensing the entire first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender into just 103 minutes, The Last Airbender tells the story of Katara and Sokka, two Water Tribe kids, as they help the prophesied Avatar, Aang, to defeat the fascistic Fire Nation.
Unlike other Shyamalan missteps that are often categorized as “so bad it’s good,” The Last Airbender stops at the “so bad” part. Fans of the original series and those who’ve never seen it equally recognize the innumerable flaws in this adaptation. The performances are bland, the story is incoherent and rushed, and the fight scenes fail to incorporate the elemental bending that supposedly drives the film’s entire world. There will always be Shyamalan apologists, and some do try to launder the film’s reputation, but it’s clear that most viewers despise The Last Airbender.
14 After Earth – 1.4/5
An oft-forgotten piece of Shyamalan’s body of work is After Earth, the sci-fi epic starring Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith. 1000 years in the future, environmental disaster has rendered Earth uninhabitable, and the remains of humanity have rebuilt on Nova Prime. On a routine mission, General Cypher Raige and his son Kitai crash-land on Earth. The general is injured, and so it’s up to his son to trek into the unknown wilds of this now-alien planet to find their rescue beacon and save his father’s life.
After Earth isn’t like Shyamalan’s other works in that he was hired on to write and direct what is essentially Smith’s vision. The film, though, still manages to fall into many of the worst trappings of Shyamalan’s style. The acting is bad, which is exacerbated by the writer’s corny dialogue. Even reviewers typically defensive of Shyamalan recognize that After Earth feels more like a director-for-hire gig than a movie he genuinely wanted to make.
13 The Happening – 2.0/5
Considered by many to be the funniest of Shyamalan’s oeuvre, The Happening tries (and by most accounts fails) to homage ’50s B-movies. The Happening is about a global pandemic that’s causing people to inexplicably kill themselves in gruesome ways. We follow a group of survivors, particularly science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), as they struggle to escape the madness and solve the mystery of what’s, well, happening.
For most, The Happening is an unintentional comedy that mixes the worst of Shyamalan’s writing with overtly sincere performances from its leads to hilarious effect. In essence, The Happening is a movie that thinks it’s smarter than it actually is. The film has its defenders who recognize that the excellent visual storytelling from DP Tak Fujimoto is overshadowed by Shyamalan’s over-the-top and often cringe-worthy writing.
12 Old – 2.4/5
A group of vacationers embarks on the trip of a lifetime in Shyamalan’s 2021 movie Old. When several patrons of a luxurious and surprisingly affordable tropical resort take an excursion to a secluded beach, they discover that it’s impossible to leave. This isn’t the only strange thing going on, though, as it seems the area itself is rapidly aging its guests. One by one, they each must grapple with their lot as they search for some way out of this nightmare.
Old isn’t particularly well-liked: for some, it’s just further proof of Shyamalan’s worst qualities as a writer and director. The dialogue is bad, which in turn makes much of the acting look bad. Many of the “positive” Letterboxd reviews are such because Old is so bad it’s good, the kind of movie that almost requires a friendly drinking game to make the experience worthwhile. Still, others genuinely praise Old for its themes, beautiful nature shots, and Shyamalan’s willingness to buck Hollywood norms for the sake of his vision.
11 Lady in the Water – 2.4/5
A fairytale response to critics of Shyamalan’s previous film, The Village, Lady in the Water is despised by many. The film follows beleaguered apartment superintendent Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) and his discovery of a mysterious woman named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) in the complex’s pool. Now trapped in our world by an evil monster and in search of someone called “the Writer,” Story needs help. Heep must rally together the complex’s diverse set of tenants to protect Story from the monster and send her home.
To many reviewers, Lady in the Water is a bizarre mess of a film that’s overinvested in its own intelligence. The characters, filling in their archetypal roles, are shallow and uninteresting, including the one-dimensional character the “Critic” — a clear stand-in for what Shyamalan thinks of his detractors. But to a select few, Lady in the Water is a visually stunning and misunderstood masterpiece whose use of storybook tropes and characters elevate the film’s messages about repressed trauma and the power of storytelling.
10 Praying with Anger – 2.5/5
Landing smack-dab in the middle of the Letterboxd ranking scale is Shyamalan’s directorial debut, Praying with Anger. The film follows Dev, played by Shyamalan, an Indian American man visiting his cultural birthplace as part of an exchange program. There, Dev learns about his culture, his family, and his faith.
Part of the problem with reviewing Praying with Anger is in the film’s quality itself. A festival flick that never got a wide release, Shyamalan’s first film is only available to watch in a low-quality VHS rip on YouTube. That said, many reviewers can see past the bad quality and recognize that the film likely would look beautiful in higher definition — the kernels of Shyamalan’s signature style are there. Most of the outright negative reviews of Praying with Anger itself focus on the subpar performances and self-indulgence endemic to the works of many a student filmmaker.
9 Wide Awake – 2.6/5
Before The Sixth Sense, there was Wide Awake, a coming-of-age drama/comedy that grapples with faith. After ten-year-old Josh’s beloved grandfather passes away, the boy seeks out answers about life and death from the adults in his life.
Wide Awake is only Shyamalan’s second movie, and, to many, it shows. Several reviews question how this film could have come just one year before Shyamalan’s breakout hit. Wide Awake is tonally inconsistent, vacillating between humor and maudlin sentimentality without warning.
The film is also accused of being boring and preachy about its faith-based messaging. Others, particularly Shyamalan completists, find the film to be a funny and emotional film that lays the groundwork for the themes Shyamalan would wrestle with in more successful movies like The Sixth Sense and Signs.
8 Glass – 2.9/5
Picking up three weeks after the surprise ending of Split, Glass sees Unbreakable hero David Dunn, now donning the superhero moniker The Overseer, hunting down the Beast. Before David can triumphantly take down this villain, though, the hero and the Beast are captured by the authorities and sent to an insane asylum. The asylum also houses Elijah Price AKA Mr. Glass, locked up there since his arrest twenty years earlier. Lording over them all is Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), who is trying to prove to the men that their “powers” are no more than a powerful delusion.
Glass is much more divisive than its predecessors, with many finding the film slow, joyless, and a bit full of itself. The three leads, too, are not nearly as compelling as their performances from the prior two films. The more temperate reviews generally like Glass but take issue with its final act and signature Shyamalan twist. But for those for whom it really worked, Glass is a masterful conclusion that empathetically reflects on the positives and negatives of human potential.
7 Knock at the Cabin – 2.9/5
The most recent entry in Shyamalan’s oeuvre, Knock at the Cabin is an adaptation of Paul Tremblay’s novel, The Cabin at the End of the World. A vacationing couple and their daughter are taken hostage by a group of four strangers with the impossible question: will you save your family or the world?
It would seem Shyamalan will never get past comments saying his newest movie (whatever that may be) is the director’s best in years and Knock at the Cabin is no exception. The film showcases Shyamalan’s visual flair and the performances of the leads, especially Dave Bautista, are highlighted in many positive reviews. Those who don’t like the film, though, complain that it’s boring, while others cringe at the director’s signature inhuman dialogue that bogs down an otherwise interesting story.
6 The Visit – 3.0/5
When teenager Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and her younger brother Tyler go to stay with their estranged grandparents while their mother is away, the two have no idea the kind of week they’re in for. Becca, in the hopes that she can reconnect her mom and grandparents, decides to film the entire week; it’s her footage that makes up The Visit. Are Nana and Pop-pop just weird old people, or are they hiding a more sinister secret?
The Visit is Shyamalan’s foray into found footage, and there are several reviewers who find it one of the best of the genre. It’s a suitably creepy and intimate follow-up to the director’s misguided step into blockbuster territory with After Earth. Detractors find the film more comical than scary and complain that the twist ending was overly obvious and telegraphed. Overall, though, The Visit is undoubtedly a step up from the director’s previous outings and a hint at the good work he would go on to do with Split in 2017.
5 The Village – 3.3/5
Shyamalan’s 2004 movie The Village is about an isolated rural village in the middle of the Pennsylvania woods. Afraid of the apparent “monsters” that live just outside the village borders, the elders prohibit anyone from leaving or wearing the color red (which attracts the monsters). But when the village’s younger residents begin questioning their way of life, they begin to uncover the dark secrets that threaten their way of life.
The Village is a mixed bag with moviegoers, with some absolutely loving it and others utterly despising it. Audiences on Letterboxd praise the film for the wonderfully atmospheric cinematography from Roger Deakins, as well as the Academy Award-nominated soundtrack from composer James Newton Howard.
The Village’s aesthetic sensibilities and plot are also highly praised, with many finding the love story as engaging if not more so than the mystery at the film’s core. On the other side of things, audience members who didn’t care for The Village call out the film’s bizarre and stilted dialogue that arguably wastes the talent of its star-studded cast.
4 Signs – 3.4/5
After losing his wife in a brutal car accident, preacher Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) is having a crisis of faith. But as Graham struggles to keep his family afloat following such immense loss, strange events begin happening on their remote Pennsylvania farm — and later around the world. Some think it’s a hoax, while others believe that Earth has some unfriendly visitors from beyond. As it becomes clearer what’s happening, Graham and his family must reckon with their spirituality to save themselves from annihilation.
For many, Signsis Shyamalan’s “last great film,” a well-acted and gripping family drama in the guise of genre cinema. Fans also praised the director’s ability to create a tense atmosphere through the stunning camerawork and score that elevate the overall themes. The usual Shyamalan negatives are also attributed to Signs—i.e., bad dialogue, overwhelming sentimentality, and a bad “twist” — but in far fewer numbers than some of the director’s more recent outings.
3 Split – 3.4/5
The 2017 movie Split follows Casey (Anna Taylor-Joy), a troubled teen kidnapped by Kevin (James McAvoy), a man with 23 different personalities. Trapped in an unknown, windowless building with this seeming madman, Casey and the other two girls kidnapped with her interact with several of Kevin’s personalities.
There’s the British woman Patricia, the nine-year-old Hedwig, and the strongest of them all, a creature called “the Beast.” And these are more than people in Kevin’s head; the personalities physically change him, too. A victim of previous trauma, Casey must use her past experiences and the strength they gave her to escape the monster’s clutches before it’s too late.
Split is still lauded by many as a return to form for Shyamalan, a bright spot after years of laughably bad writing and “twist” endings. The movie is beautifully shot thanks to cinematographer Michael Gioulakis (It Follows), and the interesting (if not insensitive) premise lends itself well to the film’s exploration of trauma.
The lead performances from McAvoy and Taylor-Joy are equally praised, with McAvoy’s transformation into the Beast being a highlight for many. Many of the negative reviews for Split focus on the film’s exploitative take on dissociative identity disorder and childhood trauma while still praising the work of the lead performers.
2 Unbreakable – 3.7/5
Today, superhero films are a dime a dozen, a stable of the modern cinema landscape that threatens to crumble under its own weight. But back in 2000, before we’d even seen the first of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, Shyamalan made his own superhero movie.
Unbreakable stars Bruce Willis as David Dunn, a man who inexplicably survives a train crash that killed all 131 other passengers, and Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, a comic book-obsessed art dealer with a rare disease that renders him as brittle as glass. Price theorizes that David is a real-world superhero, but why does he have these powers? And who will emerge as his archnemesis?
Some viewers find Unbreakable boring, slow, and confusing with a payoff that is not worth the price of entry. But for many, Unbreakable is one of Shyamalan’s best and a deconstruction worth revisiting in the modern age of superhero films. But the best part of Unbreakable, without a doubt, is centered in the lead performances from Willis and Jackson. Their chemistry on screen is palpable and genuine; so good, in fact, that it can carry some of Shyamalan’s corny dialogue and poor plotting.
1 The Sixth Sense – 4.0/5
The movie that put Shyamalan on the map, The Sixth Sense is a haunting ghost story about human relationships. We follow child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) as he begins treating his new patient, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment). Cole is convinced that he can see the dead and that they need his help to pass on. While working with the boy, Malcolm must decide: are these just the thoughts of a troubled kid, or is there something more to his supernatural sense?
For those that don’t like it, The Sixth Sense falls apart if you already know the famous twist ending, making the inconsistent plot and cringey Shyamalan dialogue that much more glaring. Most people on Letterboxd, though, love The Sixth Sense for being an atmospheric ghost story with some genuinely scary scenes. The lead performers are also highly lauded, with praise especially for Osment and Toni Collette as his distressed mother.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
