You can hate on the guy all you want, but, at some point, M. Night Shyamalan was known as the guy that gave us "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable." As far as I'm concerned, those two films justify his existence in the cinematic spectrum. "The Village" and "Signs" weren't half-bad either. Of course, following those, then we got "Lady in the Water," and "The Happening," two unwatchable films that signaled, maybe, the end of his career as the heir of Hitchcock/Spielberg for millennials.
Ever since that streak of six films, with his signature style stamped on all of them, came to an end, Shyamalan has been dabbling mostly in Hollywood crap that has none of the carefully calibrated voice he created between 1999-2008: "After Earth," and "The Last Airbender" completely crushed his soul, I'm sure. And so, the last four films he had released by 2015 ("Lady in the Water," "The Happening," "The Last Airbender" and "After Earth") were some of the worst movies I have ever seen since becoming a film critic.
These films greatly affected the latter part of his moviemaking career and his reputation as a major has-been. Why would a studio trust him with a big project ever again? They haven't since "After Earth." However, all of this seemed to have sparked a fresh new creative freedom in the director that none of us saw coming.
He made his most "watchable" film in quite some times with 2015's low-budget creepfest "The Visit," a film that could creep you out and at the same time have you chuckling, it was a successful venture into uniquely original genre filmmaking.
The real comeback, however, came last year with "Split" which had James McAvoy playing a man with dissociative identity disorder, he had 23 personalities with his body chemistry making him change at any moment to another voice. In "Split" this deranged man ended up kidnapping three women (Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Jessica Sula, and Haley Lu Richardson) and taking them hostage at his labyrinthine home.
"Split" ended with a major reveal, one that may have announced the beginning of a new phase for Shyamalan. A connection to his earlier work, more specifically "Unbreakable," which announced, quite possibly, a new phase for47-year-old old director.
Here’s the official synopsis for "Glass":
"From Unbreakable, Bruce Willis returns as David Dunn as does Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, known also by his pseudonym Mr. Glass. Joining from Split are James McAvoy, reprising his role as Kevin Wendell Crumb and the multiple identities who reside within, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, the only captive to survive an encounter with The Beast.
Following the conclusion of Split, Glass finds Dunn pursuing Crumb’s superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men.
This riveting culmination of his worldwide blockbusters will be produced by Shyamalan and Jason Blum, who also produced the writer/director’s previous two films for Universal. They produce again with Ashwin Rajan and Marc Bienstock, and Steven Schneider, who will executive produce."
Will Shyamalan mess up this new opportunity for a comeback?
“Glass” is set to be released January 18, 2019.