M. Night Shyamalan is the father of the modern movie twist, a modern-day Hitchcock in that regard. Perhaps not all of his films are as high of quality as Hitchcock, but he has built-in an expectation of himself as a moviemaker to deliver a twist in each film. As a director, he has done so to varying degrees of success, with some twists shocking audiences and others landing with a hard thud. Let’s examine and rank every M. Night Shyamalan twist.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
10 The Happening (2008)
20th Century Studios
The Happening is one of the most universally panned films of Shyamalan’s career thus far. It has been criticized by fans and critics alike since its release in 2008, and rightfully so. There are certainly some questionable decisions being made in this film, including its big twist. Throughout the film, strange occurrences of masses of people killing themselves are “happening” with no explanation. When it is revealed towards the end that the reason for this is a toxin being released by plant life as revenge for environmental wrongs, it certainly sucks the life out of an already lifeless movie.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
9 Glass (2019)
Universal Pictures
The first two entries in the unexpected trilogy from Shyamalan delivered great results, as Unbreakable and Split were both universally praised. Unfortunately, the climactic ball was dropped in the final entry, Glass. It is in this movie that we find out superheroes and villains are indeed real, but are being convinced by psychiatrists that their powers and experiences are a part of their mental illness. This is done by a secret society whose goal it is to cover up superheroes, despite their efforts in the movie the world indeed does find out, despite the deaths of our three main characters in the process.
8 Lady in the Water (2006)
Warner Bros. Pictures
This Shyamalan twist ventures into the more fantastical elements of storytelling in Lady in the Water. When the main character of Cleveland, played by Paul Giamatti, finds a nymph-like creature in his apartment complex’s pool. He becomes convinced that the other residents of the complex are playing roles in a storybook fantasy. The twist is, the roles he thought his tenants were playing were actually the opposite roles. It gets slightly convoluted when trying to explain and rationalize this twist, making it fall short of the more brilliant ones on this list.
7 Old (2021)
Old is not the greatest movie. The dialogue and acting are underwhelming, and the story feels rushed and overcomplicated. In fact, one of the best parts of the film is the twist itself. As the main characters on the beach begin aging at a rapid rate, the audience is left with the mystery of why this is happening. The twist, as we come to know it, is that each character has an illness or disease of some sort, and the island itself is a testing site used by a pharmaceutical company to study conditions and develop new drugs. The twist is an interesting one that helps to somewhat redeem an otherwise forgettable movie.
6 The Village (2004)
Touchstone Pictures
From here on out, not only does the quality of the twists improve, but so do the films themselves. Starting with, The Village, a movie that tells the story of a 19th-century village being terrorized by unknown creatures. Only they are not creatures, and it is not the 19th century. We learn at the film’s climax and conclusion that the residents are living in an isolated community and the monsters are villagers in costume. All of this is designed to keep the community safe from the corrupt and dangerous world outside their walls.
5 Split (2016)
Universal Pictures
2016’s Split was marketed as an unpredictable horror thriller. However, knowing the director behind the movie, fans knew there had to be more than meets the eye. The twist in this film is an interesting one as it does not come until the very last scene of the movie when Bruce Willis’ character from Unbreakable is revealed, thus placing Split in a shared universe with Shyamalan’s 2000 hit film.
4 Signs (2002)
Buena Vista Pictures
Signs is an interesting film when it comes to this list, as it could be argued that there really is no twist in this intergalactic invader suspense flick. It is a film that showcases the director’s ability to make a quality film not reliant on shock and surprises. If you are looking for a twist though, as it turns out, the aliens are allergic to water, and it assists in their downfall. Not the greatest twist, but even if you take the approach that there is no twist in Signs, that in itself is a twist! Especially in a film by the writer-director known for twists. Confused yet?
3 Unbreakable (2000)
After a chaotic train wreck causes David Dunn, played by Bruce Willis, to realize he has the extraordinary ability to be invincible, he is helped through this newfound life by Elijah Price, a seemingly kind man who suffers from brittle bone disease, played by Samuel L. Jackson. In what many consider to be his best film, the brilliant twist to this brilliant movie is that Price sees himself as a super villain and is in search of his superhero, which he sees in Dunn. It was Price who caused the train wreck and subsequent events in the film.
2 The Visit (2015)
Shyamalan went through a rough stretch in the mid-2000s with box office bombs like The Last Airbender and After Earth. 2015’s The Visit was seen by many as the beginning of a comeback for Shyamalan in terms of quality films. This horror movie sees two grandkids spending time with their Grandparents who they have never met and who begin to act very strangely and terrorize the kids. During a video call with their mother late in the film, the children tell her about the bizarre events and show their grandparents to the mother on the call. Twist! Those are not their actual grandma and grandpa! As it turns out, two mentally-disturbed individuals had unfortunately murdered the grandparents and posed as the children’s family.
1 The Sixth Sense (1999)
Hollywood Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment
M. Night Shyamalan burst onto the scene with this hard-to-define 1999 horror classic starring Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, and Haley Joel Osment. A young boy who sees spirits begins to be seen by a down-on-his-luck child psychologist. The film is brilliant in part because of the performances of Willis and Osment, but the frightening visuals are sure to stay with you long after the movie ends. Having no established resume of movie twists prior to The Sixth Sense, the ending comes as a shock to not only the audience but Willis’ character. In one of the greatest final scenes in horror movie history, he learns he has in fact been dead the entire time, a victim of a deranged former patient of his. The twist that no one saw coming and the twist that set the tone for all Shyamalan films moving forward.
