I fell in love with M Night Shyamalan’s third cinematic offering when in 1999 Haley Joel Osment saw dead people, “they’re everywhere”, and whilst we as the audience were distracted with the constant drip, drip clues of the red colour scheme, we hadn’t realised that the calming, welcoming and smiling character inhabited by Bruce Willis was in fact dead all along.
The Sixth Sense was a Zeitgeist film in every sense and especially so for this now 50 year old who looks back on the Prince inspired party year of 1999 with more than a little fondness.
I had to travel out of my county/state a year later to see the fantastic follow up Unbreakable, a rarity here in the UK but my town/county wasn’t showing his Bruce Willis inspired tale of shattering comic book myths as well as fragile glass, and I love Signs far more than sniffy film critics ever will.
Two years later the director created a real favourite of mine with The Village before we fell out for a few years as I largely ignored Lady in the Water in 2006 through three films later, After Earth in 2013.
Then James McAvoy disturbed me greatly with his twisted and schizophrenic portrayal in Split and 2019’s Glass, M Night Shyamalan’s follow up to Unbreakable nearly 20 years earlier astounded and pleased me greatly.
I cringed when I heard tales of a follow up/sequel/prequel to Unbreakable, but boy did he pull it off.