9 Great Directors Who Could Really Use A Career Boost

9) M. Night Shyamalan

More than a decade before he became an industry punching bag for his increasingly poor films, M. Night Shyamalan was touted as “the next Hitchcock” and “the next Spielberg.” Back when he had just made a few hit films – The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs – those bold declarations seemed like they could come true. At that point, he was an effective director and screenwriter, noted for creating a chilly, spare atmosphere, and writing intriguing stories and memorable characters. (This writer will even go so far as to defend The Village, which besides its hammy twist, is a really solid thriller.)

However, as his “twist ending” brand began to grow stale and the characters in his screenplays turned increasingly lame – one would say see Lady in the Water or The Happening for proof, but nobody should have to sit through those – the scares his stories relied on were too kooky to enjoy. Instead, people laughed and scoffed at some of his ideas, such as making the environment the toxic villain in The Happening. Casting himself as characters in his own films turned out to be a puzzler, too, since Shyamalan has a limited performing range. Meanwhile, the less said about The Last Airbender, the better.

Since the expensive box office disaster that was After Earth, it seems that Shyamalan is trying his hand at telling more restrained, low-budget stories that seems to be more in his wheelhouse. With the FOX crime drama Wayward Pines set to air in the near future, he has also been working on more modest films, the comedy-horror title Sundowning and Labor of Love, starring old collaborator Bruce Willis. Hopefully, his past failures – more a result of lackluster screenwriting than direction – have given him the foresight to tell simpler scary stories, rather than try for ambitious supernatural set-ups that are half-baked and unconvincing.