Tag Archives: M. Night Shyamalan

31 Days of Horror: Caddo Lake (2024; PG-13; 99 mins.)

Posted on October 11, 2024 | 3 comments

With a name like M. Night Shyamalan attached to this MAX movie, I was eager to dive into the creepy Caddo Lake of Texas for some thrills and chills. With gorgeous cinematography and a mind-bending plot twist, it ended up being a slow-building southern mystery more than the horror feature it could have been, but I still enjoyed it for its eerie vibe.

A community living around and commuting via Caddo Lake is dealing with a drought, making it harder to get around by boat. When a teenager who is fighting with her mother and stepfather boats to a friend’s house to spend the night, her 8-year-old stepsister goes missing. As the town looks for her, the teenager joins in, experiencing odd things on parts of the lake. Meanwhile, a man whose mother had a seizure years earlier while driving them and ended up submerged in the lake (he survived but she didn’t), is still trying to figure out why she had her seizure after six years without any. His girlfriend is about to move away, but puts that off while they spend some time together and he explores parts of the lake where he works after odd things begin happening to him there.

As the two who are experiencing the odd occurrences in the lake explore further, the lake works against them in an unusual manner, making it harder for them to each solve their mysteries and move on with their lives. In the end, though, their stories pull together in a way that is both satisfying and haunting.

Top Scare: None
Heartbeats: 1 out of 5
Gore Factor: 1 out of 5
Scare Factor: 1 1/4 out of 5
Recommended for: 13 and up

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Posted in 31 Days of Horror, Entertainment, Halloween, Horror Movie, M. Night Shyamalan, Movies, mystery, Paranormal, Reviews, scary movies, Streaming, Television, Thriller

Tagged Caddo Lake, Entertainment, Halloween, haunting, Horror, Horror Movies, M. Night Shyamalan, Supernatural, thriller

31 Days of Horror Movie: The Sixth Sense (1999; PG-13; 107 min)

Posted on October 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

This “new classic” is still on my Top 7 list of horror movies because it’s just everything you could want in a scary, yet thought-provoking, movie. Written and directed by one of my favorites, M. Night Shyamalan, and featuring one of his signature surprise-twist endings, The Sixth Sense stars Bruce Willis as Dr. Malcolm Crowe. Crowe is a reknowned child psychologist in Philadelphia who begins to see an anxiety-ridden 9-year-old boy named Cole (Haley Joel Osment in an amazing performance) whose parents have divorced and who has a secret he does not want to share with others.

Quietly, slowly, Dr. Crowe and Cole develop a trusting relationship, until Cole is ready to share his secret (in a haunting whisper of a voice): “I see dead people.” It seems Cole can see what others cannot, and dead people are trying to communicate with him, leaving him terrified, petrified, and horrified at his predicament. Dr. Crowe suggests Cole should try to find out what the dead people are trying to tell him, and to help them if he can. When Cole undertakes this task, we are all able to feel with breathtaking fear what young Cole is experiencing.

Meanwhile, Dr. Crowe is having troubles of his own. Since being shot by a former patient the year before, he has been feeling distant from his wife Anna. And Cole’s mother, Lynn, who does not know his secret, is trying desparately to help her son with the problems he is having at school and at home, which have her baffled and concerned. In the end, each person finds his, or her, way to accept what life has become and who they really are.

Top Scare: Way too many to mention just one!
Heartbeats: 4 1/2 out of 5
Gore factor: 3 out of 5
Suspense factor: 4 1/2 out of 5
Recommended for: Mature 13+

31 Days of Horror Movie: Devil (2010; PG-13; 81 min)

Posted on October 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

I am a huge, HUGE fan of M. Night Shyamalan, so I have no idea how I didn’t realize Devil was one of his movies. Okay, technically, he’s the producer, but it still features his signature twist ending and deliciously spooky, good vs. evil storyline, plus lots of great “quick scares” as well!

Set in a Philadelphia high-rise, the story begins with a suicide jump and a detective who is investigating. Very soon, though, he discovers an elevator in the same building has stopped around the 21st floor, with five people stuck inside. One of the men inside is a temp security guard, but otherwise, we know nothing at first about the other two men and two women who are trapped.

Now, think of pure Hell, and you can be sure there’s annoying elevator music playing in every stuck elevator, right? And if you’re stuck with others, you can be sure they are people you’d never want to hang out with (think salesmen and cranky old bats) for a few minutes, muchless a few hours. Oh, and you can be sure your bladder is nice and full, too. Now you know what these trapped people are enduring as the movie unfolds.

Meanwhile, two security officers, who can see inside the elevator and talk to those trapped, but not hear them talking back, are asking a maintenance man to fix the elevator. While waiting on his efforts, one officer notices the lights keep going on and off in the elevator, and when they go off one time, one of the women is bitten badly on her back. Upon reviewing the security tape, he sees what he believes is the Devil’s face. He immediately tells the other officer and the detective that he believes this is the Devil’s Meeting, when “the Devil takes human form to torment the damned on Earth before stealing them away.”

As the movie continues, one by one those trapped in the elevator meet horrible deaths when the lights go off. Each one suspects each of the others of being a murderer, and the detective is doing all he can to reach them before another one dies. We also learn more about the Devil’s Meeting from the religious security officer, so we know the killings won’t stop until the Devil gets the one he is truly after. The plot thickens, connections form, and blood flows until the surprise ending brings us full circle and we can once again ride an elevator without a care in the world, except where to look and how far away to stand from the weird dude wearing the winter coat in July.