Having lived through the rise and fall of M. Night before his current position as a divisive populist, I have no way of viewing his career with any detached distance. After a couple of false starts, M. Night released his undisputed masterpiece, The 6th Sense, a brilliant script told with a fresh approach to filming a scene and a unique, deliberate performance style. For a few years, he was a major creative influence, which lasted officially until The Lady in the Water. For many, the wheels came off with the ending to The Village, and for a few there were moments in Signs that spelled trouble ahead. Namely, the visit to town sequence, filled with bizarrely-written encounters, and an ending that reveals aliens are attempting to conquer a planet comprised mostly of something that can kill them.
However, Signs was a big hit and is already appearing on the definitive list with good reason. It’s really scary, not kind of scary or somewhat scary. Signs contains a handful of some of the great frights of cinema, most notably footage of a birthday party. The script also follows the shrieks with some really good comedy. The cast is very strong. Though now people have mixed feelings towards Mel Gibson, that can be offset by some early great work by Joaquin Phoenix. Even Shyamalan’s small role is perhaps distracting, but he sets up the next scene quite well.
To date, I’ve seen 14 M. Night Shyamalan features, eight of which qualify for this list. I don’t get to him again for about 300 titles.
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