Critic vs. Audience Scores of All of M. Night Shyamalan’s Movies

M. Night Shyamalan’s latest movie, Knock at the Cabin, is currently streaming on Peacock.

Shyamalan is a somewhat controversial director and writer, as his track record is spotty. He’s the butt of a lot of jokes about filmmaking, especially when it comes to movies where he starts out strong and then botches the landing pretty hard.

I think that Shyamalan actually makes decent movies — not amazing ones, but decent ones — most of the time. The problem seems to be that people want all of his movies to be The Sixth Sense, which a huge, satisfying twist at the end, and he’s not interested in making the same movie over and over. Yes, his movies still tend to have a pretty big twist, but that is usually less important to the story than the interesting set-ups he provides.

For all of his critics, he also has some really vocal supporters, who lay out strong cases for Shyamalan’s skill as a writer/director. My soft spot for Shyamalan is with The Village. Was the ending a bit of a let down? Sure. Are there major problems with the plot? Yes. But I love the overall tone of the movie and the world Shyamalan created in it. I can watch it just for its moodiness!

Even with these complaints, I think we all have to admit: Shyamalan does know how to set up a really good premise. Sometimes that premise falls apart (I’m looking at you, Old), but I usually get enough fun out of his movies to watch the next one. Even though I might complain about it while I watch. (Again, Old had me groaning.)

I was curious about which of Shyamalan’s movies are well-liked by audiences and critics, and which ones are panned by either or both groups. So I decided to put together this list of all of his movies, ranked from highest Rotten Tomatoes score to lowest.

Here goes!

Shyamalan’s Films, Ranked in Order of Critical Score

1. Sixth Sense: 86%
2. Split: 78%
3. Signs: 75%
4. Unbreakable: 70%
5. The Visit: 68%
6. The Village: 43%
7. Devil: 48%
8. Knock at the Cabin: 67%
9. Old: 50%
10. Wide Awake: 45%
11. Glass: 37%
12. Lady in the Water: 25%
13. The Happening: 18%
14. After Earth: 12%
15. The Last Airbender: 5%

Shyamalan’s Films, Ranked in Order of Audience Score

1. Sixth Sense: 90%
2. Split: 77%
3. Unbreakable: 70%
4. Signs: 67%
5. Glass: 67%
6. Wide Awake: 66%
7. Knock at the Cabin: 64%
8. The Village: 57%
9. Old: 53%
10. The Visit: 51%
11. Lady in the Water: 49%
12. Devil: 43%
13. After Earth: 36%
14. The Last Airbender: 30%
15. The Happening: 24%

Some Observations

I definitely notice some interesting things when comparing these two lists!

Sixth Sense comes out on top for both lists, which is really no surprise. Split, Signs, and Unbreakable are also pretty high on both lists, although none of them have super desirable, high-ranking percentages.

But look at Glass, the sequel to Unbreakable and Split. Only 37% of critics enjoyed the movie, but it has a 67% score among audiences. Clearly, something is working for viewers that isn’t cutting it for critics.

Another big gap is The Last Airbender, which is considered one of Shyamalan’s worst movies. It only got 5% positive reviews from critics, but fans were a bit more generous, ranking it at 30%. That’s not great, of course, but it’s a heck of a lot better than 5%!