I've read that M. Night Shyamalan considers himself to be the second coming of Alfred Hitchcock. Eh... not so much. I mean, kind of... The 6th Sense and The Village were the only movies that I would consider to be Hitchcock-ian style. He also likes to make a director cameo in each of his films (FYI- he didn't have one in Devil) which Hitchcock invented and perfected. Shyamalan effed that up by actually having a speaking role that was pertinent to the plot. Hitchcock literally did a walk by in each of his cameos. He wasn't an actor, nor did he pretend to be. Seeing that this guy thinks of himself as the same caliber as Sir Alfred Hitchcock is almost insulting to me. I am a HUGE Hitchcock fan, I have the velvet lined boxed set and make it a point to watch every one of them at least once a year. There's a very specific cinematic style to Hitchcock, it's not just a tame suspense flick with a crazy twist at the end. Shyamalan's movies are very dark, which is not Hitchcock. (How many times can I say "Hitchcock" in this blog? Hitchcock, Hitchcock, Hitchcock... )
A lot of Hollywood super-geeks seem to be misunderstood as to what a "twist" actually is. Let me set the record straight: a true, 100% twist in plot is when an event takes place that is completely out of context with the previous events leading up to it. In Devil, *SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER* the devil is one of the passengers in the elevator, which is not a big surprise, because we were led to believe that from about 25 minutes into it, we just didn't know who it was. It was never introduced as an option that the devil was a separate entity from the individuals in the elevator. Finding out the identity is NOT a twist!!! And this false idea of what a twist is ruins every one's opinions on them, so they leave the theater's saying to themselves, "OMG what a great movie!" Makes me want to scream "NONONONONO!!!! It was horrible!" I get so disappointed when I see a movie that was all built up as having a crazy ending and walk out thinking, "is that it?" The person that was the devil in this movie was like the second or third person to die, but came back to life later. Again... disappointing, because it's predictable.
Come to think of it... if you don't like spoilers, stop reading. Being discrete is not one of my strong suits.
My all-time favorite Shyamalan movie is The Village because the entire time, we were thinking it took place a looong time ago. It wasn't until like the last 5 minutes that we realized that it was during modern times, they were just holed up in their own little delusional existence that their lives were as it should be. There were kind of two twists, actually. The first was when the blind chick realized that the monsters she'd feared her whole life were actually the town elders in big ol' ugly suits. That one was enough for me, but the very end, EEK!! That's the kind of ending I live for! Now it's time for me to admit what you're probably thinking- I'm a dork, loser, geek, all of the above. I also own the complete collection of The Twilight Zone on DVD, if anyone was wondering.
The 6th Sense was actually a bit too dark to be a Hitchcock-style movie, but it had the trademark real twist at the end, so we'll let it slide. Watching it a second or third time, it's easy to think you were silly for not noticing it the first time around. But you didn't! Admit it! If you claim to have known he was dead all along, you LIE! And that "I see dead people" thing, priceless!!
OK my dork moment has officially over-stayed it's welcome. I'm going to go eat the 10 pounds of candy my co-workers gave me for Christmas.
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