The modern movie M. Night Shyamalan calls “exquisite”
With a career spanning over three decades and 15 feature films, M. Night Shyamalan‘s filmography has been lauded and loathed in equal measure. Known for his supernatural horror and love of plot twists, he is one of the most commercially successful directors of the modern era. His films have accumulated a number of accolades, including Academy Award nominations and over $3.4billion collectively.
After being gifted a Super 8 as a child, Shyamalan was set on ignoring his father’s wishes that he delve into medicine. Instead, he was determined to make it in the film industry. He went on to study at NYU, where he developed his interest in filmmaking. After contributing to the writing of Stuart Little and She’s All That in 1999, Shyamalan made his directorial breakout with The Sixth Sense.
The Sixth Sense preempted Shyamalan’s defining filmmaking style, a horror with an unexpected twist. Starring Bruce Willis and Toni Collette, the film garnered Shyamalan the coveted ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ nominations at the Academy Awards in 2000. It also grossed over $670million, making it the second-highest-earning horror. Alongside commercial and critical success, The Sixth Sense was a well-loved film, one which remains relevant in pop culture and is widely referenced – there are few horror lines as iconic and quotable as “I see dead people”.
Shyamalan continued his horror and thriller success into the early 2000s, only losing momentum at the end of the decade with the negative response to his adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. His more recent endeavours have received mixed reviews – he regained some success with The Visit, but Split was criticised for its depiction of mental illness, while Old was widely ridiculed by audiences online.
Shyamalan’s artistry has often been misunderstood. While he may not generally be considered in the ranks of iconic modern directors like Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino, he remains one of the most celebrated directors in modern cinema despite his wavering success and comparative lack of prestige.
Nonetheless, Shyamalan has shared his own respect for his contemporaries. He once named The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as one of his favourite films, directed by fellow thriller enthusiast David Fincher. Shyamalan once tweeted his love for his filmmaking peer, stating, “In my opinion, David Fincher is the best director working today. Performances, the camera, tone, pacing. The full monty. I’m truly inspired.” He called The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, specifically, “exquisite”.
Between Gone Girl and Se7en, Fincher has become as known for his adeptness in tense thrillers as Shyamalan has for plot-twisting horror. Based on the novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was released in 2011 and starred Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig. The exquisite feature grossed over $230m and received a number of Academy Award nominations.
It’s fitting that Shyamalan admires and takes influence from a contemporary filmmaker with such similar thematic interests and goals – the plot twist in Fight Club is just as iconic as The Sixth Sense. Fincher and Shyamalan share an interest in building tense atmospheres with climactic endings, thrilling audiences in the process.
