M. Night ShyamalanM. Night Shyamalan is a very well known Indian-American screenwriter, producer and film director. He is best known for his films Signs, The Village and, one of my personal favourite films, The Sixth Sense. At the young age of eight Shyamalan was given a Super-8 camera,

one of the earliest affordable amateur film cameras, and this seemed to spark his interest and passion in film making. Shyamalan’s first ever film was titled ‘Praying with anger’ where he independently raised all the funds for as well as directing, producing and starring in it, this demonstrated how much of a passion he had for his work.

Shyamalan is famous for having some sort of twist or surprise at the end of his films, one important aspect of a thriller film. His films also focus on a mystery that must be solved. For example, in Signs there are strange happenings around a family farm and the characters (and audience) are eager to discover the truth, which turns out to be aliens. Shyamalan’s thrillers contain a character or characters who are involved in an extreme situation, such as Cole Sear in The Sixth Sense having the ability to see dead people. He is also great at throwing in ‘mistaken identities’ and ‘red herrings’ to keep the audience engrossed and guessing throughout. These emotions are heightened by the sudden peaks and lulls of his films, all of which are central to a successful thriller.

Along with the typical traits of a thriller film Shyamalan practices, he also has unique ways of making a film his own. One noticeable feature is the use of water representing death or weakness. Michael Crowe’s murderer in The Sixth Sense is dripping with water, possibly post shower, in a bathroom before he shoots Crowe dead and also the alien’s weakness in Signs is being exposed to water. Shyamalan uses colour to subtly symbolise and foreshadow events in movies. This is most cunningly used in The Sixth Sense with the colour red:

A Red balloon floats up a red staircase, at the top of the staircase is a cupboard where spirits are present. During this scene Cole Sears is wearing a red jumper.

This is a major scene in the movie where Cole reveals to his mother he can see dead people, it takes place after a fatal bike/car crash and the fatality/ghost is present. The mother wears a red jumper while the ghost has a red helmet. Interestingly car crashes are present in other Shyamalan films and do play a part in the storylines (the mother in Signs died in a car crash).

The significance of the colour red is that it represents when a ghost or danger is present, during scenes when there are no spirits nearby there is usually none or a very insignificant amount of red present. This is extremely ingenious to the film as it tells the audience how Michael Crowe is a ghost throughout yet they don’t discover this until the end of the film. It is a ‘must watch twice’ film.

Finally, another feature Shyamalan uses is a specific camera technique of filming reflections. This is effective as it gives the film a more ‘real’ sense. It shows the audience how there ‘is no camera’ and also enhances mystery because it’s not directly looking at the scene or characters. Another good example is the reflection of the aliens in the TV set in Signs.