His latest offering, Old, is about a family whose tropical getaway turns into a living nightmare when they and their fellow beachgoers begin to undergo a bizarre rapid-aging process. What’s the twist this time? To paraphrase another famous horror-movie line, We’ll never telllll. But if you’re in the mood for a spooky cinematic bingefest complete with all of Shyamalan’s movies, that we can help with. Find out how to watch all of the movies M. Night Shyamalan has (both) written and directed in chronological order in our list below.
1. Praying With Anger (1992)
Back when he was a film student at NYU, Shyamalan wrote, directed, produced and starred in this feature about a young man who returns from the U.S. (where he was raised) to India (where he’s from) to participate in a college exchange program at his mother’s behest. While in India, he learns about his late father and about the sometimes stark differences between Western and Eastern culture. At the 1993 American Film Institute Festival, Praying With Anger was awarded the “First Film Competition” award, but the movie never saw a wide release; surprisingly, considering what a name auteur Shyamalan has become, the film’s still nearly impossible to find for rent or to stream. However, you might have some luck viewing the film in its entirety on YouTube at the link above.
2. Wide Awake (1998)
Judging by the title (and the fact that Shyamalan is so renowned for churning out psychological thrillers), you’d be forgiven for presuming Wide Awake is about, say, a family who mysteriously finds themselves unable to fall asleep no matter how tired they are. But, nope: Believe it or not, it’s a kiddie dramedy—although one that grapples with questions about spirituality in a way that is definitely very Shyamalan-esque. As Catholic schoolboy Joshua (Joseph Cross) grapples with the death of his grandfather (Robert Loggia), he embarks on a quest to determine whether God really exists. Helping him along the way are his best friend, Dave (Timothy Reifsnyder) and one of the nuns (Rosie O’Donnell) who teaches at his all-boys school. There’s also plenty of coming-of-age signposts, like first crushes and wacky hijinks. Plus, in true Shyamalan nature, this movie’s ending may surprise you as well
3. The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Sixth Sense is the movie that catapulted both Shyamalan and young child actor Haley Joel Osement onto Hollywood’s A-list, the movie that earned both of them their first Oscar nominations, and the movie that still make people say “I see dead people.” Bruce Willis delivers a low-key fantastic performance as Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist who believes he’s tasked with helping 9-year-old Cole (Osment)—but Cole, in turn, seems keenly interested in helping Willis improve his cold marriage to wife Anna (Olivia Williams). After Cole confesses his ghost-communicating talents to Malcolm, they work together to figure out how to use Cole’s powers for good. Once you’re blown away by the twist ending that had the whole world taking 20-plus years ago, you’re going to want to immediately watch this one again. Also, fun fact for Shyamalan completists: In 1999, two other movies came out that he had a hand in writing: She’s All That and Stuart Little!
4. Unbreakable (2000)
Shyamalan and Willis reunited for this movie about a seemingly ordinary man and father named David Dunn who questions the true nature of his existence after he’s the sole survivor of a brutal train crash. Samuel L. Jackson plays a strange figure who comes into David’s life post-crash and goads him along on his strange, supernatural journey toward self-discovery. Unbreakable has been hailed for the way it plays with and deconstructs typical superhero-movie tropes, which is why none other than fellow auteur Quentin Tarantino counts himself among the flick’s biggest fans. “It not only has Bruce Willis’ best performance on film that he’s ever given, but it also is a brilliant retelling of the superman mythology,” Tarantino has said.Unbreakable is also the first film in Shyamalan’s Unbreakable trilogy, which also includes 2016’s Split and 2019’s Glass (see below). Both of those movies likewise feature Willis as David Dunn. (The trilogy is also often referred to as the Eastrail 177 trilogy, named after the train crash in Unbreakable that sets Dunn’s story in motion.)
5. Signs (2002)
Aliens attack! Shyamalan veers into E.T. territory while continuing to examine themes about religion, faith and otherworldliness as he’d done in past films. A priest named Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) has left the church following his wife’s death in a gruesome car crash. When space creatures inexplicably start descending to Earth, he must protect his young kids (Rory Culkin a pre-Little Miss SunshineAbigailBreslin) with help from his brother, a failed professional baseball player (JoaquinPhoenix). Shyamalan cameos as the man who accidentally killed Graham’s wife, while Signs’ ending may surprise you for what it doesn’t do.
6. TheVillage (2004)
Shyamalan’s luck with twist endings may have run out with The Village, another tense-till-the-end thriller that had viewers saying “huh?” instead of “woah!” when the third-act surprise was revealed. Phoenix is back in the Shyamalanverse as Lucius Hunt, a villager in a 19th-century town (or is it?) that’s apparently long been terrified by unspeakable monsters who live just in the woods just outside their village’s border. Those woods are finally braved by blind villager Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) when she’s tasked with going on a search for medicine. What happens next? Let’s just say most people figure out the twist long before it actually comes. On the plus side, TheVillage does boast an all-star cast that also includes William Hurt, Adrien Brody, Sigourney Weaver, Jesse Eisenberg and more.
7. Lady in the Water (2006)
After making psychological thrillers, extra-terrestrial thrillers, superhero thrillers and maybe one downright schlocky thriller, Shyamalan tried his hand at a fantasy thriller with this movie about a water nymph (Howard again) who appears in the pool of a Philadelphia apartment complex. The complex’s super (PaulGiamatti) takes it upon himself to help the nymph, who’s arrived to…. convince the author who created her in a previous novel to write a book that will somehow save humanity from itself? The plotline is murky and silly at best and self-indulgent at worst; Shyamalan took a lot of heat for casting himself in the major role of the author after previously giving himself nifty, little, Hitchcock-esque cameos. The movie also features a cocky film-critic character (BobBalaban) who meets a violent end. Projecting much?
8. TheHappening (2008)
What happens in The Happening? A high school science teacher (Mark Wahlberg) and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) hightail it out of Philadelphia after people in big cities in the northeastern U.S. mysteriously start committing mass suicide. Along the way, they try to figure out what’s making people kill themselves, ultimately realizing that Mother Nature herself may be the bad guy this time around. Shyamalan’s critical slump continued with The Happening, which didn’t get great reviews, but in retrospect, viewers may find the film to be a provocative and potent parable about the perils of global warming.
9. The Last Airbender (2010)
Talk about a twist: Shyamalan pressed pause on the whole psychological-thriller thing to write and direct this live-action, fantasy flick based on the animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender. And here’s another twist: The Last Airbender often appears on worst-movies-of-all-time lists, raking in nine Razzie nominations and two wins for Worst Picture and, for Shyamalan, Worst Director.. (The Razzies, a.k.a. Golden Raspberry Awards, dole out accolades to the most critically drubbed movies every year.) Here’s what the late, great film critic Roger Ebert said about the movie: “The Last Airbender is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here.” Ouch!
10. AfterEarth (2013)
Shyamalan’s streak of poor reviews continued with this post-apocalyptic drama that, on the surface, had all the makings of a hit. The futuristic film starred real-life father and son Will and Jaden Smith as pretend father and son Cypher and Kitai Raige, who live with the rest of humanity in the 31st century on a planet called Nova Prime. When their space vessel crash-lands on an abandoned Earth and injures Cyper, Kitai must step up and save them both by orchestrating a rescue mission while fighting bad-guy aliens.
11. The Visit (2015)
Think of The Visit as a Shyamalanian take on Paranormal Activity if it were one of Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries. Let us explain: This found-footage indie (following his last few flops, Shyamalan put up the $5 million budget himself) tells the story of two young kids (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould) whose mom (KathrynHahn) sends them for an extended stay with her parents in rural Pennsylvania. The problem: Nana (DeannaDunagan) and Pop Pop (PeterMcRobbie) act inexplicably weird—especially at night. The Visit is surprisingly funny, often described as a comedy horror flick, while Shyamalan’s decision to finally return to his twist-ending trickery pays off in a big way.
12. Split (2016)
The title refers to the split personalities of one Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), who goes by nearly two dozen other names and identities. One of those identities kidnaps three girls, including a pre-Queen’s Gambit Anya Taylor-Joy. The girls’ struggle to escape, coupled with Kevin’s struggle with his inner psychological demons, comprise the bulk of this film—which was hailed as a return to form for Shyamalan and generally praised by critics. As for the twist, it comes at the very, very end and if you haven’t already seen it, all we’ll tell you is that if you scroll up, we’ve already secretly given the ending away.
13. Glass (2019)
It’s a Shyamalan supergroup! The leads from both Unbreakable and Split show up here, with Unbreakable’s Willis, Jackson, Spencer Treat Clark and Charlayne Woodard alongside Split’s McAvoy and Taylor-Joy. (For good measure, the always appreciated Sarah Paulson also plays a major role.) The movie locks up Willis, Jackson and McAvoy in the same mental institution; at CinemaCon in 2018, Shyamalan described that setup thusly: “The worlds of Unbreakable and Split finally collide in Glass. What if these real life superheroes and supervillains are somehow locked up together? What could go wrong?”
14. Old (2021)
It’s like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but much scarier! Based on Sandcastle, a Swiss graphic novel by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, Old stars Gael García Bernal and Vicky Krieps as the husband and wife weathering a vacation from hell alongside their children when the remote beach they’re relaxing on starts making people of all ages grow older with supernatural speed. What’s the twist this time? Our lips are sealed, but we can tell you this: For its exceptional cast and sophisticated storytelling, Old has been garnering great reviews. Next, check out all of the upcoming horror movies you’re going to want to see in 2021 and 2022!
