During the emotional roller coaster that was the Intervention marathon Maria and I watched last night someone slipped in a trailer for the new movie Devil, out in theatres in a couple of weeks. It was a short trailer, I wasn’t even really paying attention, but we did both pause and take note when the name “M. Night Shyamalan” whipped across the screen.
Shyamalan is one of my favourite writers/directors working today and so, since I follow him pretty closely, I was totally surprised to find that he had a new film coming out. Well, not exactly. As it turns out, Shyamalan was involved in the film only as far as the story concept goes. He came up with the idea, but that’s about it. Still, I like the way he thinks and all of his films in the past, as far as I’m concerned, have had really interesting stories at the heart of them so I’m excited for Devil. But let me tell you why I’m a bit frustrated too.
The concept behind devil—the concept that Shyamalan came up with—is that a bunch of people are stuck in an elevator on their way to work. One by one, they begin dying, and someone in that elevator is responsible for killing them, one of them is the devil himself.
It sounds like an interesting concept, but of course Shyamalan is going to get some flack. Sometimes I wonder if he isn’t the (amateur) movie critics whipping boy..
As soon as trailers for Devil trickled out of the production house the press dug up that same tired old line, “It might be a good movie, but I bet it has a twist ending.”
Ah, the good old twist ending. That style of film-making and story-telling that M. Night Shyamalan is infamous for. Well, the press say, he better work hard to dig himself out of that whole, he better finally make a movie without a twist ending.
And I roll my eyes clear out of my head.
Now I don’t want to confuse being a Shyamalan fan with being a fanboy, a fanatic, or an apologist. I am none of those things but I am tired of hearing the poor guy get flack for widely help misconceptions and poorly-researched assertions.
It is incorrect to say that all M. Night Shyamalan films have twist endings. It’s incorrect to say that he really needs to redeem himself from that plot device and come up with something new.
A quick look at his film-making resume from the past ten or so years is revealing:
- The Sixth Sense (Twist; he’s dead)
- Stuart Little (No Twist; we knew he was a mouse all along)
- Unbreakable (Small twist; you’re a superhero and he’s your nemesis)
- Signs (No Twist; we knew they were aliens)
- The Village (Twist; it’s the 21st century, better buy a new wardrobe)
- Lady in the Water (No Twist)
- The Happening (No Twist)
- The Last Airbender (No Twist)
Basing our conclusions on actual research (i.e., I looked at a list of films he’s made) it’s clear that less than half of his movies feature twist endings. But why does he still receive so much negative attention over it? Why does he have to redeem himself with a film like Devil?
As far as I’m concerned Shyamalan does a great twist ending, he’s a clever writer and director, but it isn’t the only thing he can do. He’s proven himself as a competent film-maker time and time again. While I didn’t see The Last Airbender (I think it’s a film for kids) both The Happening (an intentionally-crafted B-movie) and Lady in the Water (a fairytale) were pulled off very well. And no twists.
From what I’ve seen so far Devil looks like it’ll be a pretty good film. It’s a cool concept. But all the buzz on whether or not we’ll be in for a big twist in the end is just foolishness. Although for a film about the devil, wouldn’t it be perfectly fitting? 
