By far the worst Shyamalan Movie ever!!!!

Rating: 3/10 (21 January 2005)

I'm a huge fan of Shyamalan's movies for several reasons: 1) There is normally a twist that no one can figure out and if they claim to have it figured out they are lying 2) There is always a "creepy" element 3) His wonderful visual and sound effects 4) Normally a great script with good pace and great acting After seeing this movie, it's hard not to see that he failed miserably in the first 2 categories and really only got half of the 3rd category complete (the visual was magnificent but the sound effects are barely noticeable). The 4th category he only had some great acting performances (Brody, Howard and Phoenix) but the rest of the cast was average at best and the script and pace was terrible!!!! I couldn't believe that this was a movie from the same guy who made 6th Sense and Signs.
So where do I begin? First of all, I actually figured this one out halfway through the movie. Maybe it's b/c I've seen his movies and I knew there would be a twist, but really, you should be ashamed if you couldn't figure this one out after William Hurt shows Howard the Hidden Shack. I'm easily fooled by these things and if I could figure this out, well I gotta believe over half the people that saw this can figure it out halfway through.
Next, there was no "creepy" factor in this at all!!!! At no point was I scared or freaked out. The pace of the movie is too slow and the story just takes too long to develop. Which is maybe why I was able to figure this out; I wasn't creeped out or into the movie so I had time to figure out what the big twist was.
As I said before there was some good visual elements to this movie but the sound effects here were barely noticeable. I don't ever remember feeling intensely creeped out at any point and I believe his lack of using good sound effects (e.g. his use of the Wind Chimes in Signs) was the reason. And once again, the slow pace of the movie didn't help along with the fact that there are some uncharacteristically stupid moments throughout the movie (e.g. Why does Brody's character put on the costume when he knows Howard is blind?).
As a person who doesn't really like scary movies, I became a fan of Shyamalan's b/c most of his movies creep you out in original and unusual ways unlike most scary movies. Now I realize, his movies aren't worth a crap if you aren't freaked out, and this movie isn't worth a crap. Sorry, go see one of his other films if you want to be scared. It only avoids getting a 1/10 b/c of Phoenix's and Howard's performances and some of the visual effects are great, but not worth going to see. 3/10