Film Analysis : Themes and Filmmaking Style of M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan films often feature supernatural and otherworldly phenomena, they generally are not considered horror movies -- in part because they're relatively family-friendly affairs, focusing on plot and interpersonal relationships rather than explicit content. This clean, "classy" style of fright filmmaking has drawn comparisons to legendary director Alfred Hitchcock -- a parallel aided by Shyamalan's propensity for twisty storylines and cameo appearances in his own movies. We’ve cited 3 films directed by M.Night Shyamalan as movie examples to study authorship theory:  Signs (2002), The Village (2004) and The Happening (2008).

Themes

Family-oriented

In these 3 stories, M. Night Shyamalan portrays the protagonist struggling from the pain of losing someone that they love and as well as the family protecting each another, holding each another back.  From 4 members of family in Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002) to the whole citizens that stay in a village of The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004) till the huge population in a city in The Happenings (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008), the amount of people involved in the 'family' has got more sophisticated. 

Family members in Signs.
Retrieved from Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)

Villagers staying together in The Village.
Retrieved from The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004)

People of the city that involved in the events.
Retrieved from The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008)

In the movie Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002), Graham is a father who is still grieving the lost of his wife was so afraid losing the son in the end. And by working together with the brother, they manage to kill the alien and save the son. Also, a similar theme is seen in the movie The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004). The village was started because the chief (father of protagonist) and the other elders wanted to protect all their love ones from the town as they all experience loses of love ones in the town. We can see that there is a more sophisticated handling the theme in The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004) as the bond of family is no longer one family but a few families that ended up a village. In The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008), the family love and bond continue to expand. In this film, Alma and Elliot ended up taking care of Jess just like their own kid when her father dies. M. Night Shyamalan put “family” as the prominent theme in his films can be seen throughout his film works and it is consecutively more sophisticated.

Belief and Faith

In the movie Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002), Graham is having conflict over the faith and belief towards God. Graham has lost his faith after his wife death but pick up his faith towards God again after saving his son from the remind of his wife's last words -  "swing away". 

In The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004), the villagers believe the myth that are created by the elders and live protected in the village. They believe that there is really monsters in the woods and "towns" outside the boundary is dangerous without discovering the truth. The monsters, 'Those We Do Not Speak Off' are actually suits that are created by the elders and their posterity were taught not to go into the woods and towns as they might offend the monsters and the world outside the woods are dangerous. 

The events happened in The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008) are believed as an act of nature to kill human beings by some of the people. However, some think that the happening is the  government's project. In the film, Elliot explained the act of nature is something that we will never fully understand.

The religious, the myth of 'Those We Do Not Speak Of' and the possibilities of events happened are all created by human. All of the explanations are made and presented by humankind. Though 3 of his movies, Shyamalan successfully lead us to reflect and examine our system of belief in life.

Death as Hope

Death plays a sign of hope, warning and fear sophisticatedly in Shyamalan's film. In Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002), the death of Graham's wife makes him lose hope to believe in God but at the end of the story, he found hope to save Morgan from alien's threaten from the flashback of his dead wife last words. The same idea was used in The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004) when Noah died in the woods wearing the suit of 'Those We Do Not Speak Of'. 

Noah died in 'Those We Do Not Speak Of' suit.
Retrieved from The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004)

The elders are worrying that the lies of the village and creature created will not be a secret anymore but when the death of Noah unexpectedly gives him another hope to make the lies even real. The death in the story was used as a sign of warn but a hope to the people. In The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008), the significance of death was repeated and matured as a fear that chase the characters. The death of the inevitable happening have bring the relationship of Elliot and Alma which going downwards, back together. 

Alma has developed being a mother to a child through the happening.
Retrieved from The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008)

After the happening ends, Alma finally realises that she really does want to be a proper wife to Elliot and a mother to the now-orphaned Jess. 

Water as Salvation

Retrieved from Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)

M. Night Shyamalan uses water as a lead to salvation to crisis. In Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002), the glasses of water that are put  by Bo everywhere in the living room becomes the weapon to kill the alien. As in The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004), Ivy have to cross the woods and listen to the sound of the stream to reach the wall boundary out to the town. It is the hope for Ivy to save Lucius from death. 

Parody

M. Night Shyamalan uses mockery constantly and often challenges audience’s expectations in his films. One of the example we can find in Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002) is that instead of the big space ships and flying spaceships that we often found in any other sci-fi, he choose using the crop field to creates the presence of the aliens.

Signs of aliens on the crop field.
Retrieved from Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)

In The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008), instead of the usual supernatural or horror movie that scares that you could literally see, he tactfully uses a story to allow the audience feels the creep without seeing any “creatures” or “monster’. What and who causes the happening? It is just an empty field for audiences to answer or fill with what terrifies them the most.

Shyamalan shows mockery on audience’s expectations towards death and killing scene in the movie Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002), when Graham chopped off the alien fingers, there are no sign of blood or any other liquid that came off. You might argue that alien might not bleed, but the same style of treatment was seen in the movie The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004). When Noah stabbed Lucius, there are no blood seen dripping or soaking his shirt, not even when Noah constantly stab on Lucius. In The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008), the first scene of people start to killing themselves, there are no bleeding scene as well. No excessive bloody scene is shown at the scene when the lawnmower crashing over a victim's body. 

Retrieved from The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008)

The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008) is a daringly experimental mainstream thriller films of all time. The tropes of classic disaster movies are used but inverted in this film. It is a deviance of expectation. The pace of the disaster thriller film starts of with fraught and slows down after that, but it becomes almost motionless with fewer words, longer takes, silence and vastness that you can almost feel it as it reaches the climax. In addition, instead of reaching the city to find bigger population to survive like usual disasters films, the characters have to split into smaller and smaller groups to survive. The event has even then ended suddenly just by showing exact time it ended when the audiences are expecting to see a plot-twist-happening-end.

Film Style 

Cameo

M. Night Shyamalan as the killer of Graham's wife.
Retrieved from Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)

In Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002), he himself stare as the killer of the Graham’s wife, and we could literally see him from the screen. In The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004), he plays as the role of the chief officer, whom, only appeared in a reflection manner. In The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008), his style of putting himself in the movie has not changed, he did participate in the movie, but while audiences were curious about where is Shyamalan this time round. As what we found from the credits, he portrayed as Joey, the guy that texted Alma and talked on the phone with her. He did not show himself like previously, instead, the whole line and his appearance is only when Alma picked up his call and the voice over of ‘hello’ from the phone. 

Reflection

Unlike any other directors, the use of reflection is believed to be one of the visual style of M. Night Shyamalan especially the reflection from the item in our daily basis. For instance, in Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002), Graham uses knife to reflect the alien under the door  of the pantry.

Retrieved from Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)

Retrieved from Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)

Also, when Graham trying to get Bo the TV, he saw the reflection of the alien on the TV screen. 

Retrieved from Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)

In the movie The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004), the refrigerator that reflects M. Night Shyamalan's face when the officer trying to get the medicine for Ivy while she is in town. 

Retrieved from The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004)

In the movie The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008), his style reoccurred. Julian uses the back mirror to check out the back passenger.

Controlled Mise-en Shot

One of the very significant M. Night Shyamalan's style is the controlled mise-en shot. He used 3 main camera techniques in most of his films. Other than close ups and tracking shots, he also constantly backs the camera away when something shocking is shown. In Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002), the lighting and camera frame was controlled by following the movements of Graham and Merrill in the basement when they were finding where the air came from. The light and camera frame then stopped when they realised Morgan were standing right at the wall where the air entered the basement. The next shocking thing that happened was the alien's hand grabbing Morgan's neck from the hole where the air entered. In The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004), controlled miss-en-shot was again, used on the scene when Ivy was crossing the woods alone to get to the town to get the medicine to save Lucius. When the creature appears behind Ivy, the camera frame followed her head movements, turning to face the creature who were actually Noah wearing the suits. The camera moves as if it is the Ivy's head.

Twisted Plot with Editing

One of Shyamalan's style is to review the twist at the end of the story. In Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002), the plot was twisted by the flashback cuts in Graham's dream of her wife's death. The flashback reviewed is character-motivated. The similar style was used in The Village (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004), however it works none like montage  sequences. The flashback of the characters was taken out from diegesis. When Edward open the black box with the pictures of the elders and their family, none of the characters are thinking about the flashback. The reason of why the village was started is reviewed at the end of the story.