Here are M. Night Shyamalan’s first two movies explained. M. Night Shyamalan scored a major critical and commercial success with 1999’s The Sixth Sense, which cast Bruce Willis as a psychologist working Haley Joel Osment’s Cole, who claims to see ghosts. The movie’s incredible performances and unforgettable twist ending propelled it to major success, and Shyamalan soon reteamed with Willis for superhero drama Unbreakable.
M. Night Shyamalan’s fortunes have dipped up and down over the years, which began in earnest with the response to 2006’s Lady In The Water. The director had little luck with blockbuster projects either, with the likes of The Last Airbender or Will Smith vehicle After Earth receiving bad reviews and middling financial success. He really seems to have regained his mojo in recent years by returning to modestly budgeted genre pieces, such as The Visit or Split.
The Sixth Sense’s overwhelming success led some to believe it was actually M. Night Shyamalan’s directorial debut, which isn’t the case. It was his third feature, though his first two projects enjoyed little success. His first movie was 1992 drama Praying With Anger, which he made and self-financed while still studying at NYU. In addition to writing, producing and directing, he also stars as the main character Dev, an Indian American who heads back to India on a student exchange program to reconnect with his roots, which proves to have a profound spiritual effect.
Praying With Anger is a personal, autobiographical tale lacking in the genre elements that would later form a big part of M. Night Shyamalan’s work. That said, the movie is quite hard to track down now and while fans of the filmmaker might be interested in it for completion’s sake, by all accounts it’s far from his best work. Common complaints cite awkward performances and a clunky screenplay as big problems, but the movie was undeniably an important first step in his career.
M. Night Shyamalan followed Praying With Anger with Wide Awake, a 1998 comedy-drama Wide Awake. This follows a young boy named Joshua who is grieving over the death of his grandfather, which leads him to question if God even exists. The movie features a cast that includes Rosie O’Donnell as a nun, Denis Leary and Robert Loggia and is arguably the odd man out of the director’s filmography.
Wide Awake turned out to be something of a nightmare for M. Night Shyamalan too, as it was shot in 1995 but went unreleased for three years. The movie was produced by Miramax, and after one screening disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein infamously ripped him to shreds, making the young director cry. The movie didn’t recoup its budget and received mixed reviews, but the next year he would enjoy his breakthrough with The Sixth Sense. His next project OLD is set for release in July 2021.
