10 Accidental Masterpieces From Otherwise Bad Directors

8. M. Night Shyamalan €“ The Sixth Sense

" I see dead people." This is unarguably one of the most memorable lines in film history. The Sixth Sense introduced us to a hot, new filmmaker named M. Night Shyamalan. With The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan weaved a masterful story of a young boy who was haunted by spirits of the dead, all trying to communicate with him because he could see them and no one else could. Bruce Willis gave instant credibility to the film and a young actor named Haley Joel Osment proved to us that not all child actors suck. The film managed to scare us, but this was not a horror film. It had living, breathing characters we sympathized with. By the time it sucker-punched us with its twist ending, we were invested in everyone in the film and how it affected them. Not surprisingly, Shyamalan was heralded as the next great thing in Hollywood. Shyamalan followed up The Sixth Sense with Unbreakable. While not a bad film by any means, perhaps the expectations were simply too high. Shyamalan tried to dupe us with another unexpected twist but it didn't have quite the same impact within the context of this story. His next film, Signs, was a successful film about an alien invasion but anyone with half a brain could see the gaping plot hole €“ why would aliens that are dangerously susceptible to water try to invade a planet that is seventy percent water and inhabitants made up of sixty percent water? With The Village, Shyamalan went back to trying to fool us with another trick ending. However, by this point everyone was wise to his tricks and pretty much bored with it - never mind the fact that the trick ending was an insult to our intelligence. Things have not gotten any better for the once highly regarded director. His name has become synonymous with box-office poison, directing (and writing) 'memorable' outings such as Lady In The Water, The Last Airbender and the widely lambasted After Earth. It's sad really €“ we can only hope that M. Night Shyamalan can return to his previous form of greatness, however one can't help but feel that it should have already happened by now, if it was going to happen at all.