M. Night Shyamalan sometimes gets a bad reputation for being a one-trick pony in Hollywood. Indeed, many of his films are best-known for their late-movie twists that recontextualize the rest of the movie in an unforeseen way. Over time, many moviegoers and critics got used to expecting some kind of twist from his films, which ultimately makes the twist less effective when you expect it. This narrative is so encoded into the zeitgeist that movie lists can rank Shyamalan movies by the quality of the plot twists alone. However, the movie twist is not the only reason why Shyamalan’s movies have been so watched. Here are a few things besides his twists that speak to his skill as a director.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

He Is an Excellent Visual Storyteller

     Blinding Edge Productions

A standout quality of M. Night Shyamalan is his ability to tell his stories just through visuals. One of his strengths is that he can give meaning to scenes to the audience through extremely subtle ways. Shyamalan’s techniques are expertly crafted to allow them to be easily digestible without being overly hammy.

Take an example from his movie Split, which is a spin-off movie from his previous film Unbreakable. There is a scene where a main character, Casey, is flipping through a comic book to find out information about The Beast. The way she does it tells the story of her emotions without needing dialogue or facial expressions. In this movie, he also makes good use of screen reflections and security footage to heighten the surreal nature of the movie and tie the visuals to the themes of split personalities. Shyamalan’s visual style is very readable and traditional. He doesn’t give much thought to subverting film visual tropes. Shyamalan tries to add visual details to tell the story and link his movie’s themes together in an approachable way. Even though his movies often feature fantastical elements, his visual style makes the film still feel grounded in realism.

He Gives His Actors the Tools to Produce Great Performances

     Buena Vista Pictures

M. Night Shyamalan famously doesn’t give his main actors notes on their performances during their scenes. He prefers a natural approach to directing where the actor develops their own performance based on the writing in the script. Shyamalan works hard to provide his actors with the tools to explore their performances, which builds a high level of trust. Bruce Willis said that he had agreed to come on board for Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense film after only reading a few pages of the screenplay because he trusted him to deliver a committed and driven directing effort.

He Is an Expert at Tone And Atmosphere

Many critics praise Shyamalan’s enigmatic style, where he uses a scene to both tell a story and set the atmosphere at the same time. In his movie Signs, great care is put into building the atmosphere, even at the expense of the plot and characters. There is no excessive exposition in his directing style, nor is there unnecessary dialogue. The strength of Shyamalan’s visual storytelling shines through to build suspense throughout the film until the eventual reveal of the aliens.

Love Him or Hate Him, His Films are Wholly Original

M. Night Shyamalan’s most recent project Old proves that he still has what it takes to top the box office. One reason that Shyamalan can continue to maintain his audience is because of the originality of his movies. Even those who quickly grew tired of the twists in his movies will admit that they often couldn’t predict what the twist was going to be or when the twist was going to occur. Another reason his films are original is because of the thematic set design he employs, that is on the level of Tim Burton or James Cameron. He uses original imagery in his sets that is visually interesting and generates a rich tone and atmosphere. In his film Unbreakable, he uses colors to associate heroes and films, and it is a great tool to translate comic book action into the real world.

He Has a Good Sense of Comedic Timing

     Blinding Edge Pictures

While M. Night Shyamalan is mainly viewed as a horror director, he is also an understated master of employing comedy in his films. He has a unique way of setting up strange visuals that can be played for horror or for comedy, and you never know which way it is going to go. For example, in his film The Visit, there is a girl character called Becca, who is an aspiring filmmaker. She becomes a stand-in for Shyamalan himself and often directs other characters to stop disrupting the ambiance and draw attention to dramatic elements in the film. He delivers these horror-comedic gags with expert timing that doesn’t detract from the overall atmosphere he is trying to build in his movies.