A Discussion of M. Night Shyamalan’s “Old”

M. Night Shyamalan’s name has long drawn mixed reactions from moviegoers. The prolific director has quite a few box office hits under his belt, including “Signs”, “Unbreakable”, “Split”, and even more recently 2015’s “The Visit”. However, Shyamalan is also known for having directed several duds.

There is no need to fully dissect these movies as this has been done time and time again, but one example of these box office and critical failures is 2010’s “The Last Airbender”. This one draws many groans from fans as it was based on the popular Nickelodeon television show, but failed to capture the essence of what made the source material great.

While “The Last Airbender” was a career-low for M. Night Shyamalan, it was by no means the only time the director received intensely negative reviews and fan reactions for his work. He is known for truly going for it in his films, but often missing when it comes to successfully executing the goal of his work.

This has led to a loss of faith in his work. Many former fans believe M. Night is a hack who got lucky a few times but ultimately proved that he does not have what it takes to be a consistent director. I disagree with this idea.

I have a strange relationship with M. Night Shyamalan. I agree that he has done some great films, but I can also acknowledge that some of his ideas were half-baked at best. I admire him for going big even if the package isn’t always of the best quality, but he has released some pretty bad movies to theatres. In my opinion, M. Night is one of the most important filmmakers of all time because of his willingness to try.

Now, he has a new film out. The movie is called “Old” and it hit theatres this past weekend. This is not intended to be a review of the film, but rather a discussion of what works about it as well as perhaps something M. Night could do in the future to ensure a steady level of quality.

How Can M. Night Improve his Work?

It feels weird to offer advice to a working filmmaker when you’re a new writer who’s trying to make his mark. Who am I to tell anyone how to make their films better? But still, I have seen just about all of M. Night’s films and I have a great deal to say.

I believe he needs to collaborate with others for his films. Shyamalan tends to direct, write, and produce his work, and he has since the start of his career. Perhaps this is too much of his vision. I think he is a great director who truly wants to keep the film industry on its toes, but there always seems to be elements of his work that are lacking. I think it’s usually the writing that hurts his films.

The screenplays used in his movies typically feel unnatural. The dialogue is always choppy, there is far too much exposition, and it makes the film feel boring in many parts. The perfect example of this is his latest film. “Old” has a premise that works to an extent, but the writing makes it less than a great film. It’s almost like they used the first draft of the script for the film. I saw the movie twice this weekend with two separate friends, and they both agreed that the writing was the weakest element of this movie.

There is no reason for an established director in 2020/21 to write their own films, especially if they have received negative attention for this in the past. Tyler Perry’s work suffers from this same issue. Not every creative can or should do every aspect of the job of putting together a film, but these two seem to think it works for them when it clearly does not.

Let’s Talk about “Old”

As a fan of M. Night’s work, I wanted to see his new movie from the first time I heard about it. I couldn’t get a real grasp of what the premise was going to be, but Shyamalan is an exciting director and I knew regardless of if the film was good, I would go to the theatres to see it. My hopes were not super high, but given that he has rebounded from his prior career lows, I knew there was at least a possibility of the film being at least decent.

As mentioned earlier, I saw the film twice. I must say that I almost completely hated it the first time. I thought the dialogue was awful, I despised the camera work, and I also thought there were far too many unnecessary scenes in the film, particularly towards the end. I probably rated the film a 5 out of 10 if I remember properly.

I saw the film two days later and my response was a bit different. By no means did I believe the film was great, but I also didn’t hate it. I respected the writing a tiny bit more and I even saw more of M. Night’s vision in the camera work. However, the film would have been better served being written by someone else. I think he should focus on directing great movies but hiring an experienced, or even new, writer to write the script. Given that he is the director, the film would still be his vision, but having a different person focus on this aspect of it offers another voice to the viewers.

Also, I love things that are different and outside of the box. I respect when artists “go there” without knowing if the audience will be receptive. I think the film industry is too formulaic, which removes much of the excitement that should exist for the industry.

However, M. Night Shyamalan typically takes this too far. It’s almost as though he thinks making his movies shocking will make them good or that it will make people talk. It achieves the ladder, but not in the way he wants. A prime example of him taking things too far is the pregnancy scene in this movie. It was completely unnecessary and simply made audiences feel uncomfortable. We got the concept of rapidly aging people on the beach without the image of the young girl walking out of a tent with a protruding belly.

I wanted M. Night to have a runaway success with his latest film, but that is not the case. It is number one at the box office, but I think most people will discard the film after a single viewing.

Final Thoughts about M. Night Shyamalan

As said before, I believe M. Night is one of the most important directors of all time. This is because he directs films that reach broad audiences without following a safe formula. However, it would be great if he collaborated with more people. His work would feel more refined and complete if he hired a writer, specifically.

It should also be said that I’m glad he’s still making movies. The industry needs more filmmakers like him who are unafraid to be different and to fail in such public ways.