Every M. Night Shyamalan movie, ranked according to critics

Rotten Tomatoes score: 12%

Synopsis: After the death of his daughter, seasoned space soldier Cypher Raige (Will Smith) and his son Kitai (Jaden Smith) leave the colony of Nova Prime and crash land on Earth, which humanity fled nearly a thousand years ago because of an environmental disaster that eventually transformed many of the planet’s animals and plants into threats.

As father and son navigate these hazards, hoping to be rescued, the two rely on each other for survival and strengthen their bond in the process. 

Like “The Last Airbender” before it, “After Earth” was widely panned for being boring, tedious, and cringe-worthy.

“We’re not used to seeing Will Smith shorn of his lightness and humor, but in ‘After Earth,’ he’s solemn and heavy-lidded, and he speaks with grave deliberation, never even using contractions,” wrote Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman. “He tries to make Cypher a kind of Obi-Wan figure, and Smith is charismatic enough to pull this off, but the father-son mentor/disciple relationship is better than the rest of the film, which is like a plate of sci-fi leftovers.”

Rotten Tomatoes score: 25%

Synopsis: Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), an apartment-building superintendent, one day discovers a water nymph, or “narf,” named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) in the building’s pool.

Her mission? Find the Author, a writer whose book will inspired a future US president to change the world for the better.

But a wolf-like creature, a “scrunt,” threatens Story’s quest and her life. 

Unfortunately, “Lady in the Water” was considered another major misstep by Shyamalan, which critics considered self-indulgent, convoluted, and absurd. 

“It pains me, therefore, to call ‘Lady in the Water’ a failure,” wrote Amy Biancolli of The Houston Chronicle. “Calling it a noble failure — or a near-failure rescued from the brink by Shyamalan’s consummate cinematic eye and Paul Giamatti’s beautiful, anguished performance — might soften the blow, but not enough. The movie simply fails as a story. It fails to show rather than tell.”

Rotten Tomatoes score: 44%

Synopsis: Residents in the 19th-century, Amish-style village of Covington, Pennsylvania, lead quiet lives constantly in fear of “Those We Don’t Speak Of,” humanoid creatures living in the surrounding woods.

When Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard), the blind daughter of the village’s chief, sets out to find medicine for her injured fiance, she encounters dangerous creatures along the way.

Like many of Shyamalan’s other films, “The Village” relies on a twist at the end that either leaves viewers stunned or unsurprised. 

While “The Village” is considered one of Shyamalan’s less successful films, it did help introduce the world to Howard, who would later appear in another Shyamalan film, “Lady in the Water,” as well as “Spider-Man 3,” “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” “The Help,” and “Jurassic World: Dominion.” 

“With ‘The Village,’ however, Shyamalan has played the same hand one time too many, and anyone with a passing knowledge of Rod Serling’s ‘The Twilight Zone’ (or even that old also-ran ‘Thriller‘) will likely be able to surmise the film’s ‘shocking’ ending with a modicum of head-scratching,” wrote Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle. 

Rotten Tomatoes score: 47%

Synopsis: Josh Harnett plays a serial killer known as “The Butcher.” Though the cops don’t know what The Butcher looks like, thanks to a tip, they know he’s taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) concert and have devised a plan to catch him at the venue. 

“Usually, the architecture of a thriller involves introducing a complicated scenario and then slowly but surely ratcheting up the tension; with ‘Trap,’ Shyamalan has chosen to set it and forget it,” wrote The Film Verdict’s Alonso Duralde.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 67%

Synopsis: Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), a gay couple, and their young adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) are vacationing in a remote cabin when a group of four strangers, including Leonard (Dave Bautista), barge their way in and take them hostage.

The apocalypse is coming, the group contends, unless the family makes the hard decision to kill and sacrifice one of their own. 

“Shyamalan’s adoration for the dads and their sweetly introverted daughter is evidenced by scenes of genuine tenderness, and Groff’s performance is especially moving,” wrote The Atlantic’s David Sims. “But those touches also make the film’s final act all the more wrenching; it’s suffused with disaster and entirely devoid of winks to the camera.”

Rotten Tomatoes score: 70%

Synopsis: This superhero film follows David Dunn (Bruce Willis), who survives a train crash unscathed and comes to believe he has superhuman strength.

After the funeral for the train passengers, Dave meets Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson), a man who suffers from a lifelong genetic disorder called brittle bone disease.

Working with Elijah, David hones his extrasensory perception, which allows him to touch people and see visions of criminal acts they have committed. 

David, however, eventually realizes that Elijah was responsible for several disasters, including the train crash. He reports Elijah’s crime to the police, and Elijah is confined to a psychiatric hospital. 

“Unbreakable” was largely hailed by many critics as offering a unique twist on the comic-book genre that sets things up well for the two sequels — “Split” and “Glass”— that eventually followed. 

“I don’t think this movie is perfect, by any means,” wrote The Washington Post’s Desson Howe. “But it’s rare to find a film that makes you even hope for perfection. I was hooked from beginning to end.” 

Rotten Tomatoes score: 78%

Synopsis: Kevin Crumb (James McAvoy) is a man who suffers from a special form of dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personality disorder, which causes his metabolism to change as he cycles through 23 distinct personalities, from Ms. Patricia, an polite elderly woman, to the historian Orwell.

When one of Kevin’s personalities abducts three teenage girls and imprisons them underground, Kevin eventually fights for control of his body. 

As Shyamalan’s second highest-rating film, “Split” serves up a terrific performance from McAvoy, who has a field day shifting between Kevin’s wildly different personalities. 

“Though there’s a crowd-pleasing cameo, it lacks the kind of ‘twist’ that Shyamalan fans love,” wrote The Evening Standard’s Charlotte O’Sullivan. “It doesn’t even have the gore and big scares that made 2015’s ‘The Visit’ a hit. Who cares? It’s far from perfect, but where so many modern horror movies are anonymous, ‘Split’ has personality and then some.”

Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%

Synopsis: Child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) starts working with Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), who eventually confides to Malcolm that he sees “dead people.”

After he realizes Cole is telling the truth, Malcolm convinces Cole to communicate with the ghosts and help them tie up their loose ends. 

“The Sixth Sense” remains M. Night Shyamalan’s most noteworthy movie, with fine performances from Willis and Osment, a brooding atmosphere, and a twist ending audiences talked about long after the film ended.

Shymalan tried to recreate that cinematic formula in several of his later movies, but none of them ever quite matched “The Sixth Sense” for shock value. 

“‘The Sixth Sense’ teeters on the brink of New Age ludicrousness, but it never goes over: Like Krzysztof Kieślowski and others, Shyamalan knows that what makes for lousy metaphysics can make for powerful metaphor, and in the end he creates a deeply, surprisingly affecting film out of a little bit of smoke and brimstone,” wrote Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club.