IT’S THE BOOZE TALKIN: Will Devil Save M. Night Shyamalan?

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

Will Devil Save M. Night Shyamalan?

It’s a question we seem to be asking every year. Will (insert new M. Night joint here) turn things around for the once fawned genre savior? Remember the Hitchcock comparisons? Remember when the cameos were considered a cool little gimmick instead of an annoying self-serving distraction? Remember the good times? I know M. Night does. There was a time, after delivering a trio of hits, that the director could have made anything he wanted and, as long as he kept catering to all the little fanboys and girls of the world, still been generation X’s golden child. Then he made LADY IN THE WATER. And here we are.

It should come as no surprise that DEVIL looks great. Whoever cuts this guy’s trailers should be given some sort of an award. The entire marketing campaign has been close to perfect (that poster way down below is freaking fantastic). Ironically, it seems the only thing dulling the hype for this film is the inclusion of the sentence “From the mind of M. Night Shyamalan”. It was the moment those words appeared across the screens in Hall H at Comic Con this past summer that the audience (the film’s target audience, me thinks) let out a collective disappointed groan. Pretty sure this wasn’t the reaction they were going for.

The fact that people have turned so badly on M. Night truly makes DEVIL a no-win situation for him. If it sucks it will be because of his involvement. If it’s good it will be because he didn’t direct it. I guess that answers the question right there. There’s no way in hell this film helps save M. night in the eyes of genre fans. Unless he decides to finish out his career by letting other directors take credit for his visions, he needs to step up to the plate and realize what worked so well for him early on. There was an unconventional approach to fantasy story telling that satisfied fans without the flash and traditional genre cliches. Whether it was about ghosts, or super heroes, or alien invasions, there was a subtle delivery that allowed the characters to blossom. So, yeah…. do that.

Maybe it’s the booze talking but I want this movie to be good so badly I can taste it. I don’t hate M. Night, I hate THE HAPPENING. I haven’t checked out THE LAST AIRBENDER because it doesn’t seem like my type of film. DEVIL does. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe The Night chronicles is the avenue you need to take to get back on track. Attach your name to a couple quality stories and then build up the faith for a fanbase that has turned you into a punchline. You do that and nobody will see it coming.