Indian-American actor and director M. Night Shyamalan has made a name for himself in the filmmaking world. As his movies manage to be hits and blockbusters, they garner praise for how unique their storylines are, as well as how they manage to twist in on themselves and captivate audiences even when it seems like they have run out of steam. He entered the movie scene in 1992 with Praying With Anger, a film he starred in, wrote, and produced. He then worked as a screenwriter, doing an uncredited rewrite of She's All That and penning the script for Stuart Little.
Updated: May 9, 2023: To keep this article fresh and relevant by adding more information and entries, this article has been updated with additional content by Evan Lewis.
Shyamalan's career has seen its ups and downs. The director broke out with The Sixth Sense, which made him a household name. After a series of successful films, he hit a creative rough patch with films like The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth, which were box office disappointments and were trashed by critics. He recently bounced back thanks to a partnership with Universal Pictures that became box office hits thanks to a combination of small budgets. His next film is Trap, which Warner Bros will release. on August 2, 2024. Until then, here is a look at M. Night Shyamalan's best films.
8 The Visit
The Visit marked Shyamalan’s return to the horror genre in 2015, and it did not disappoint in his classic style. Two teenage siblings live with their divorced mother in Philadelphia, who has not spoken to her parents in fifteen years. One day, the siblings’ grandparents track them down online and invite them to stay for five days at their rural farmhouse. The family agrees, but when the children arrive at the house, their grandparents begin to act strangely. The Visit is unsettling and vaguely reminiscent of the gory drama sealed inside original, unedited fairy tales. It is a layered nightmare, a fresh dash of originality in Hollywood horror movies.
7 Glass
Glass was Shyamalan's epic conclusion to the story laid out in Unbreakable and Split. Glass serves as Shyamalan's epic crossover event that is popular in comic books and mainstream superhero movies, but done in a very Shyamalan way. The film was highly anticipated as both Unbreakable and Split were box office hits and received positive reviews.
While Glass had an impressive opening weekend box office, it was seen as a disappointment by fans. However, it is still a fascinating conclusion to the trilogy that Shymalan started back in 2000 and is very much a superhero story like only this director could tell. In an age of massive superhero epics, Glass provided a unique take on genre conventions.
6 Old
Before one’s beach vacation, one better not watch Shyamalan’s latest movie Old. Gael García Bernal and Vicky Krieps star as a couple preparing to finalize their divorce. To ease their young children's anxieties about the divorce, they agree on one last family vacation together to a tropical resort. The hotel's employees take the family to a private beach with a couple of other parties, but the beach seems to have supernatural qualities as its occupants are rapidly aging.
With its musings on time and how it passes too quickly, alongside medical exploitation, Old’s twist offers lessons in keeping an audience’s attention. It was also one of the first hits at the box office as theaters started to open back up following the COVID-19 pandemic. Shyamalan's name and the premise were big enough draws that the R-rated skewing horror film opened to number one in its opening weekend and managed to beat out an action blockbuster like Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins.
5 Knock At The Cabin
Knock At The Cabin is the latest movie in Shyamalan's catalog, based on the novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay. It poses its central characters with an impossible choice; to sacrifice a member of their family or allow the rest of the world to suffer a long-winded and painful extinction in the form of relentless catastrophes.
Knock At The Cabin proved to be a moderate hit at the box office when compared to its budget. Critical reaction was divided, but it certainly sparked a great deal of conversation. Fans of the director's style also debate whether the ending can be considered a twist or not, going by the expectations that Shyamalan has placed on his shocking ending scenarios. Regardless, Knock At The Cabin is a thrilling ride. It is already considered a staple for the director and will likely age well considering its timeless themes and possibly future-relevant premise in regard to the current changes in climate.
4 Unbreakable
Distribution
Released in 2000, Unbreakable marks the beginning of the Unbreakable series that includes Shyamalan’s later films Glass and Split. A former star quarterback turned security guard boards a train, which then crashes. When he wakes up in the hospital, he is not injured when there was no way he could have survived that. He begins realizing that he has never been sick and that he shows paranormal capabilities when it comes to strength, thus making people believe he is indeed a superhero. Unbreakable is now considered one of the best superhero films ever released, helping distinguish it from others.
3 Split
Split is actually the second movie in the Unbreakable series that Shyamalan had planned, and it stars James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Betty Buckley. A man (McAvoy) struggling with a dissociative personality disorder has 23 personalities. One night, his personality, named Dennis, takes over and kidnaps three girls outside a birthday party. They attempt to escape from him before his 24th personality, named “The Beast,” takes over and kills them all.
McAvoy is the standout from this film for his performance as a young man with a split personality. Even with the controversy surrounding the film's portrayal of mental illness, it cannot be denied that the story and acting carry it. While The Visit indicated Shyamalan had not completely lost what made audiences fall in love with him, Split is the movie where people realized he was back in full swing.
2 Signs
2002’s Signs starred Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix. A former priest (Gibson) has renounced his faith in God and lives on a farm with his two children and younger brother (Phoenix). One day, crop circles begin to appear around the farm, but they make nothing of it. When crop circles and flashing lights begin to appear all over North America, it becomes obvious to the ex-priest that this could only be the work of aliens.
Although the movie does tend to deliver information directly, its ambiance makes up for what it lacks in mystery. For anyone who is intrigued by science fiction and anything to do with alien invasions, this would likely strike an in-tune chord. Signs was a box office hit when it opened in theaters, and to an entire generation, the scene of kids at a birthday party seeing an alien cross by is still one of the scariest images of all time.
1 The Sixth Sense
The Sixth Sense is M. Night Shyamalan’s best film to date, and it was the movie that introduced his work to a larger audience. A child psychologist (Bruce Willis) discovers one of his clients, a nine-year-old (Haley Joel Osment), is capable of speaking to the dead and can see ghosts wandering around. The Sixth Sense is partially a ghost story and a horror movie, but having clichés prevalent in those genres does not stop it from making it a superb movie.
Osment’s performance was particularly praised, as well as the movie’s script. It is easily the director's most famous work to this day, and that would be for a very good reason. It happens to be on most people's "recommended" list, so we would also recommend this as a starting place for anyone that wishes to see and binge all of Shyamalan's work.