Despite making several successful films that were renowned for their unexpected endings and thrilling turns, the iconic ending of the Bruce Willis classic has come to define the Indian American filmmaker.
“The Sixth Sense,” M. Night Shyamalan’s debut picture, has long served as a benchmark for the esteemed director. The 1999 Bruce Willis classic’s popularity propelled the Indian American from Philadelphia into an overnight sensation. Off a $40 million budget, the movie brought in $700 million worldwide and earned six Oscar nominations, including Shyamalan’s for original screenplay and direction.
Throughout the course of a four-decade career, Shyamalan has distinguished himself with his distinct storytelling style. His career has been filled with highs and lows, successes and failures, and clever and dumb moves. According to a Deadline article, he has “the rare distinction of having film open at No. 1 in each of those decades.”
However, the Los Angeles Times pointed out that he has “come to be defined by the twist,” “especially because he kept chasing after equally expert twist endings in his subsequent films.” His following movies, such as “Split” and “Unbreakable,” were praised for their unexpected endings and thrilling turns.
Shyamalan “benefited from audiences having no idea who he was,” according to the Los Angeles Times, despite the fact that he began making films while still a student at New York University. Previous In addition to starring in “Sixth Sense,” he had also directed “Praying with Anger” (1992) and “Wide Awake” (1998). “There was minimal notice that the upcoming filmmaker, who turned 29 on the day his masterpiece debuted, would take us by surprise,” the LA Times stated.
“The Village,” “Signs,” and “The Visit” are a few more popular songs. His 2000 spin on the comic-book action thriller “Unbreakable” was followed up by “Split” and “Glass,” the combined trio of movies earning $773.5 million worldwide. Despite the success of these films, Shyamalan “would come to be defined by the twist, especially because he kept chasing after equally expert twist endings in his subsequent films,” the LA Times noted.
Reviews for his most recent film, “Trap,” have been conflicting. The movie centers on a serial killer who is being sought by the FBI during a concert that resembles T-Swift. When Cooper (Josh Hartnett) takes his teenage daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert by megastar Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan, who is also a musician and Shyamalan’s real-life daughter), Riley gets entangled in Cooper’s attempt to flee after realizing the show is a massive trap to catch him.
Saleka Night Shyamalan wrote and composed the songs in addition to portraying one of the film’s main characters. The 28-year-old said to USA Today that although playing a major character is “very exciting,” it is “definitely out of my comfort zone.” As the father and Shyamalan told USA Today that he wanted a soundtrack where “the buoyancy and the artistry of the music is affecting the movie in a significant way,” since he and his daughter both adore Prince’s “Purple Rain.”
According to USA Today, Shyamalan wrote a script that required Saleka to write, perform, mix, and produce 14 songs in addition to learning a ton of choreography. He said it was crazy. “I asked her to do something, but I do not know how many people on the planet could do it. Still, I am asking you to do it,” I said.
Ishana, the middle daughter of Shyamalan, debuted her first movie, “The Watchers,” in June. The film starred Olwen Fouere, Georgina Campbell, Dakota Fanning, and Oliver Finnegan. It is an adaptation of the same-titled gothic horror book by A.M. Shine from 2021 and centers on 28-year-old artist Mina (Fanning), who becomes lost in a vast, uninhabited forest in western Ireland. After taking cover, she unintentionally finds herself stuck with three strangers who are being followed and observed by enigmatic beings every night. Her proud father produced it with his production company, Blinding Edge Pictures. Critics, however, gave the movie a bad reception, and it made $33 million worldwide.
The Los Angeles Times reports that “Trap” had “a mediocre finale” and “underperformed on its opening weekend,” raising doubts about the movie’s viability. In the film’s review in the publication, Tim Grierson touched upon Shyamalan’s first superhit — “The Sixth Sense.” “Fairly or not, he’ll always be punished for pulling off one of the hardest things in the story — and then daring to repeat it,” he Grierson wrote, noting that “if he’d stop pursuing such endings, we would have forgiven him by now.”
The Guardian called the film “a mess,” and called out Shyamalan for using it as “a backdoor showcase for Saleka. “Just months after he tried to force his other daughter, Ishana, into the spotlight, by producing her loathed horror film The Watchers, he’s now insisting Saleka breaks out – an equally unlikely ascent given the evidence,” the reviewer Benjamin Lee said. “While her music is just about believable, if a little dated, for a star of her stature, as an actor, she’s an uncomfortable distraction,” Lee added.
According to the Associated Press, Shyamalan made “a particularly bold and even confusing move to reveal so much so soon” with “Trap.” Another flaw was highlighted by Lindsey Bahr’s review. “Trap is a solidly entertaining film that is mostly silly and sometimes unnerving,” she said, adding that it “really does not take itself that seriously.” The audience is “drawn in enough to be ever curious about his next move,” even though they are “not exactly rooting for Hartnett’s Cooper.”
Reviews were not all bad. According to The Wrap, the movie is “a fiendishly clever thriller,” with Cooper having all the tools he needs thanks to Shyamalan’s cunning screenplay. “A perfect distillation of how M. Night Shyamalan has grown as an artist, combining B-movie thrills with family drama to great effect,” is how actor and filmmaker Myles Hughes described it. He stated that it “may be his most purely entertaining film yet” in a post on X.
