When his last film, Lady in the Water, earned just $42 million, M. Night Shyamalan -- who generated more than $1.5 billion in ticket sales with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and The Village -- could easily have been disappointed. Instead, the supremely confident auteur, who is now back with the paranoid thriller The Happening, says, “Lady was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”
Rumors of hysteria and chaos sweep the country. A man lies down in the path of a riding mower. People inexplicably free fall from tall buildings, plummeting to their deaths. Although seemingly unconnected at first, these events are just a few of the many ingredients in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, which carries the potential to be the writer-director’s most viscerally frightening, apocalyptic thriller yet. Ever since he became a (somewhat tough to pronounce) household name with The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan, who turns thirty-eight in August, has had a career devoid of the surprise plot twists that have become his most prevalent narrative signature. With its eerie tone, unforgettable line, “I see dead people,” and a stunning, masterfully concealed reveal, the film slowly built into a word-of-mouth phenomenon that grossed $672 million worldwide. It also spawned a familial relationship with Disney, which bought the project as a spec package, guaranteeing that the then-unproven Shyamalan would be its director.
Ever since he became a (somewhat tough to pronounce) household name with The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan, who turns thirty-eight in August, has had a career devoid of the surprise plot twists that have become his most prevalent narrative signature. With its eerie tone, unforgettable line, “I see dead people,” and a stunning, masterfully concealed reveal, the film slowly built into a word-of-mouth phenomenon that grossed $672 million worldwide. It also spawned a familial relationship with Disney, which bought the project as a spec package, guaranteeing that the then-unproven Shyamalan would be its director.