M. Night Shyamalan is certainly a divisive filmmaker, but one of his movies is often unfairly labeled as the beginning of his decline. Shyamalan exploded onto the scene with his brilliant The Sixth Sense in 1999. While it is a common complaint that the filmmaker never seemed to recapture the greatness of his first big hit, it wasn’t until later that his reputation suffered.

Shyamalan’s movies are distinctly his own, but his style and writing are not for everyone. His surprise hit Split helped launch a comeback of sorts for Shyamalan, following a series of poorly received movies. However, one of his early movies is often lumped in with the disappointments, despite deserving better.

Signs Is A Better M. Night Shyamalan Movie Than It Gets Credit For

The Flawed Ending Is A Small Part Of A Great Movie

Following the success of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, Signs was a movie that really cemented M. Night Shyamalan as a filmmaker whose name alone could stir up excitement. The fact that he was dealing with an alien story was even more exciting.

Signs stars Mel Gibson as a widowed priest who has lost faith. When crop circles begin appearing on his farm property, he does all he can to protect his family from the potential dangers surrounding them. The movie was a mᴀssive box office hit, with over $400 million at the worldwide box office (via Box Office Mojo).

However, the backlash against Signs came quickly as many fans began criticizing Shyamalan’s somewhat stilted dialogue and melodrama. Of course, it was Signs‘ infamous ending that really painted it in a bad light, with many feeling that it ruined the rest of the movie.

While the ending is a disappointment that hasn’t improved much over the years, with enough distance from the initial reaction, it isn’t as detrimental to the overall project. Up until that ending, Signs was a pretty effective sci-fi thriller with one of the most effective slow-burn approaches of a big studio horror movie like this.

Shyamalan controls the tension of the movie so well, filling the entire movie with a sense of unease. When the thrills do kick in, they are brilliant, such as Gibson’s Graham spotting an alien on his roof and the famous newscast of the alien stalking outside a house.

It would have been nice for the movie to stick the landing more effectively after these great moments, but Signs clearly shows that Shyamalan was operating at a high level as a filmmaker. In fact, Signs was his last great movie before his decline.

When M. Night Shyamalan’s Decline Really Started

The Village Marked A Downfall

M. Night Shyamalan was in fine form when making Signs, but his decline sadly started with his very next movie. Despite the somewhat mixed reaction to Signs, The Village was still met with a lot of excitement when it was released in 2004. The mysterious marketing further added to the anticipation.

Unfortunately, the smaller issues that showed themselves in Signs became damaging problems in The Village. Shyamalan’s dialogue was starting to feel overwritten and cheesy, especially in the very specific setting of the movie. Most of all, The Village‘s ending was not only a letdown, but it destroyed the concept of the movie.

The reception of The Village proved that audiences and critics were no longer enamored with Shyamalan, and that only worsened with his next movie, Lady in the Water. It was beginning to feel as though Shyamalan was believing his own hype and chasing the twist ending of The Sixth Sense, resulting in indulgent movies that forced unsatisfying conclusions.

Things got worse with a string of movies that Shyamalan felt ill-suited for, including After Earth and The Last Airbender. Thankfully, Split felt like a return to form for the filmmaker, and he has since been working steadily on original movies that, while divisive, feel like he is back to making his movies, like Signs was.