I heard an interview with him on NPR and he said he's shocked that people associate him with "twists" because only a minority of his films have them.

He also said that Hitchcock is associated with big twists but only one of his films have them.

For what it's worth...

It's true. His only films with "twists" were "The Sixth Sense" and "The Village." All the others have major plot turns - but nothing real shocking or moving.

i think that the "twist" at the end of unbreakable is worth noting.

I'm by no means an MNS fan, but what single twist in a hitchcock are you referring to?

spoilers ahead

by my count there are quite a few: psycho (norman's mother is dead and he suffers from split personality), marnie (various revelations about marnie's mother), vertigo (the revelation that judy is madeleine), and although they are less noticeable, nearly every episode of "alfred hitchcock presents" and "the alfred hithcock hour" ends with a twist.

once again, i have no comment on your flaming of MNS, i just think you are wrong about hitchcock.

Hey I'm not wrong - I was quoting M Night Shalalalamalinglong.

I am a self proclaimed Shyamalan fan and LOOOVED Unbreakable, Signs, and the village ( sixth sense ehh seemed liek a typical horror flick, Lady wasnt bad... just didnt excite me as much as his other works)

I was sooo excited to see The Happening, as I am a big fan of Mark Whalberg. I wont make this a ridiculously long post arguing my case etc etc... but i will say the idea and story were Effing Awesome... however the presentation, the acting, the pacing... it seemed off. And while I can dig on the overall message, story, idea... i cant say that this movie did much to impress me... in fact i think i only really say that i liked the movie is because I am a fan of his. Maybe my thoughts will change when I watch it again on dvd (i wont 9 bucks to watch it again) but i hope that he can fix whatever happened to him because i think this guy has a lot of imagination and a whole hell of a lot of talent... he just needs to harness it and use it properly

this hereby ends my drunken run on sentence. lol

Nine bucks?

I'd love to see a movie for nine bucks.

how much is it where you live?

$6.75 here

Night, honestly, I really look up to, though I feel he has the worst ad people in the business. Why? Because all of his films are advertised scarier than they actually are, so when people go and watch the movie expecting a film that will disallow their brains to go into REM because of what MAY come out of the closet, they are sadly, and at times angrily, disappointed. Lady in the Water ads were a great example. I remember the first ones said it was a fairy tale, but by the time the movie was on the late show circuit people thought the lady was a crazy soul sucking maniac... or something to that effect. Then The Happening came out and all the ads said with a booming, menacing voice "M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN'S FIRST RATED R MOVIE." the question 'w00t?' comes to mind. I know someone that summed up his movies pretty well. He said, "Yeah, M. Night, he's my boy! He makes scary movies not scary." He later went on to conclude, "They all have deeper meanings." That's what his movies are about, not scaring the bejewels out of you.

I will admit, I had the feeling that the acting, how do you say, blew in The Happening and it was not my favorite M. Night movie. I actually came out of the theater a bit disappointed (wtf ikno rite?). I mean Mark Wahlberg is seriously a good actor in my opinion. He's at least better than the unrealistic acting he did in this Plant's Gone Wild movie he was in.

Oh M. Night...

Like many of you, I think he's a great filmmaker, but has made a lot of crappy movies. And it seems as though they keep getting worse and worse. He gives us a fabulous set-up, but never knows how to give his stories a proper pay-off. Which could explain his tendency to throw in twists and endings that use hidden clues to justify a surprise ending, rather than true character growth.

But I really think he has the potential of being great. He takes risks and tries to cross genre lines. But, Dentsai is probably right: He does have awful ad people.

Also, I think he's just too happy with what whatever he writes. It like he assumes people will like it just because he's writing it, regardless if it's rubbish or not. Like his s**t don't stink.

But, he is unique. I'll give him that. It's nice to see somebody like him trying new things. Trying new things and getting slated by everyone. And yet, despite all the criticism, the Night rolls on...

Why is it considered "popular" to hate on him? If his movies suck in general, that doesn't make it fashionable, it makes it a general consensus.

Anyway, The Happening was terrible, I thought, because of all the little things:
DJ Marky Mark was generic character, so it was kinda hard to make him into anything apart from the middle-class everyman. I already had a grudge against the chick who played his wife because of the "Tin Man" experience. The whole tree-chemical thing was dumb, the family chemistry sucked, the "not-running-away-after-a-teenager-gets-owned" was ridiculous, the story had a bunch of holes, and the ending was pretty cheap.

Moral: "Global warming will kill you too, protect da beez."

That's only the condensed version.

After seeing the trailer, I just couldn't bear to extend the experience, so I haven't seen this film. What a waste of a great premise, though. I think everyone groans when they hear the name M. Night because he's played on that name from the outset and a whack of people have bought into it. I'm just irritated because there are so many amazing filmmakers out there and this guy keeps getting bankrolled. Maybe he should take his craft into animation and spare us his lame attempts at live horror. Get Rob Zombie to tone it down and re-make these M. Night bombers!