M. Night Shyamalan’s filmography has had its ups and downs at the box office and with his audiences, but there is no doubt that the man is dedicated to his art. As the director revealed when speaking with GQ and breaking down his most iconic films, there were times when the director feared he would become a cautionary tale.
While the director talked about his greatest films in the video, he revealed that there was one film that he was afraid of going down on. Despite the film becoming a hit on its first day in theatres, the making of the film made Shyamalan worried for his career, given that a lot of his personal capital was invested in the film’s making, and studios were not ready to buy the film off of the director.
The Visit had a very difficult production for M. Night. Shyamalan
The Visit was a film that M. Night Shyamalan produced on his own money. The film was made with a budget of $5 million, by the director’s own admission, in a rented lodge that Shyamalan took possession of for a year to ideate and film in. To GQ, he said:
I remember how close we came to it falling apart because, you know, I went out, mortgaged the house, took no money, you know, all that stuff. And it was going to go south. And we, I was scared. And I showed the move really quickly, like I cut together as fast as I could, and I showed it to a bunch of buyers, and you know all the studios, everybody passed.
The film was a found-footage horror film, around the time when other films were following similar gimmicks. However, given the minuscule budget that had gone into the film, and the way it told a story that people were interested in, the film was profitable on its opening night, which was a big win for Shyamalan and Universal, the studio that finally took a shot at the project.
M. Night Shyamalan’s latest failed to even break even
M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, Trap, starring Josh Harnett, was another horror film that the director wrote, directed, and produced. However, the film has ended up being a commercial and critical dud, garnering only mixed reviews and failing to make back its base budget at the box office.
Of late, Shyamalan has mostly been defined by his disastrous attempt to adapt Avatar: The Last Airbender, given that a second live-action attempt by Netflix has faired better with fans.
Lately, the director’s other films have also failed to receive the sort of acclaim that was expected. Despite having some great films like Unbreakable, Split, and The Visit, he has failed to please critics and the box office with his offering.
The Visit is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video
