Spoiler: The real twist.

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 2004)

Of all the comments I have read here, everyone seems to be overlooking the biggest twist of all: the entire movie. It seems to me that Shyamalan wishes to not be marked a one trick pony, so the twist here is that he didn't make another sci-fi movie. You thought he was going to, but he didn't. No ghosts, superheroes, or aliens. Just lies. The movie is advertised as another M. Night creepy suspense movie, but in the end it isn't. It starts out with this premise and keeps with it for quite some time then all of a sudden it shifts gears. I can see why he would do such a thing, and I can see how this could be quite effective with regards to his position in film-making. "It wasn't what I expected, but I liked it anyway" is what people would say. Only they didn't. Unfortunately, the only director that could have really pulled off such a trick is Hitchcock. He was a master of manipulation even before you got to the theater. Hitchcock was the only director that could have pulled off something so grand as the movie itself being the twist, but then again, Hitchcock knew what it was he did best, and he never strayed from that. I think perhaps Night should take a cue from his idol and do the same. What started out as a novel idea became, in the end, a rather boring movie devoid of any real suspense or entertainment. 2 out of 5.