[Nicolai P. Zwar]

I’m generally “pro” M. Night Shyamalan, he’s done some great movies and takes some risks, at least he tries some new things. However, he’s really done some awful duds as well, that tarnished his reputation. Unbreakable was my pick as favorite score of 2000. It’s a great score for an excellent movie, that’s a top pick.

I mean, on the plus side we have:
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The movie that started it all. Great movie, holds up super well. Works even if you already “know” the twist (which happened to be the case for me, even though I saw the movie when it originally came out.)

Unbreakable (2000)
Great follow up. One of Shyamalan’s best.

Signs (2002)
Pretty interesting… more like a Twilight Zone episode. Ending a bit weird, but it worked. Haven’t seen it since it came out. Maybe time for a re-watch.

The Village (2004)
Far out premise, yes, some people may laugh at it, but it’s a beautifully done movie. One of Howard’s most beautiful scores, and the movie works for me.

Lady in the Water (2006), The Happening (2008), The Last Airbender (2010) (didn’t see that one), After Earth (2013)
This is were it all comes apart… some of these movies make no sense at all. Lady in the Water, After Earth, they are just plain stupid. The premise doesn’t work, the resolution doesn’t work… Shyamalan is still a good director here, but an awful screenwriter. Didn’t see the last Airbender yet.

The Visit (2015), Split (2016)
With these two movies, Shyamalan is back in form. The first one is a low budget, slow burning horror movie, and the second one was a terrific kidnapping drama, which — surprise, surprise, Shyamalan did what no one has done before: a stealth sequel. That’s the “real” Shyamalan twist here, that the movie turns out to be a sequel to UNBREAKABLE. I don’t think that’s ever been done before, to secretly make a sequel to a successful film and explicitly not market the movie as as such. Boss move!

Glass (2019), Old (2021), Knock at the Cabin (2023)
This is where it gets bad again. GLASS was a disappointing letdown after UNBREAKABLE and SPLIT, OLD wasn’t very good either and had a lame resolution, and KNOCK AT THE CABIN was then totally bad beyond all hope.

I haven’t seen Trap (2024), so not sure where that one falls.

I am very much looking forward to a new M. Night Shyamalan movie scores by James Newton Howard. I’ve seen James Newton Howard in concert a few years ago, and he spoke highly of Shyamalan and called him his “friend”, so there seemed to be no riff between the two, even though Howards had not scored any of his later movies.