For such a highly regarded director as M. Night Shyamalan, it is surprising he has only directed seven films. The probable reason for his popularity and success is because, like a quality craftsman, he takes great time with his stories and ensures that a complete and competent vision is put on screen long before we buy a ticket.

Admittedly, the vision doesn't always work. I found his last two films, Signs and The Village, too self congratulatory to be true spiritual roller coasters. Just because the room is dark and people are muttering in terror doesn't necessarily make the events scary to the audience. Nevertheless, his quality of work as a writer and director has never been in question. As far as creating suspense goes, apart from the A-list masters of cinema, who are usually busy directing socially relevant statement films and not escapist fun, Shyamalan is probably the best in the business.

He well understands some very basic lessons in structuring his stories: what isn't seen is scarier than what is; a story should be coherent with a beginning, middle and end, with a denouement that captures the essence of the theme. He also instinctively feels what scares people today: Death. Religion. Foreign life forms. And of course, foreign behavior from otherwise normal people. Finally, Shyamalan gives the audience more than they paid for--the characteristic big plot twist. True, the technique is often sink or swim. It worked brilliantly in The Sixth Sense and made sense in Unbreakable. In The Village, however, it left the feeling of artificiality. But by the time the closing credits roll, at least no one can accuse Shyamalan of being predictable.

When it comes to unsettling movie audiences, the director has a natural gift. In about two weeks,, Shyamalan will continue to unsettle, scare and manipulate his fans with Lady In The Water. The story follows an apartment building superintendent who rescues a young lady in the water, which is a pool that he maintains for the complex. Don't worry, Shyamalan isn't making an issue film on population and housing. It turns out, the woman is a character from a bedtime story who is trying to travel back home to her world. The protagonist Cleveland Heep then protects the woman from "creatures" who are determined to keep her in our world. (Are we sure this isn't a pro-immigration film? Fairly sure)

It will be interesting to see what kind of dramatic performance Shyamalan can get out of Paul Giamatti. Paul Giamatti is not necessarily a versatile actor as much as he is an effective actor. He has such a brainy and cantankerous screen presence that he can be very easily miscast. I still feel his two most natural performances were in Private Parts as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton and Bob Zmuda in Man On The Moon. Playing much more wholesome characters such as romantic lead Miles in Sideways and Joe Gould in Cinderella Man only reminded us how unique and iconoclastic Giamatti is from the typical Hollywood leading man. (I think playing comic book legend Harvey Pekar in American Splendor was possibly Giamatti's career peak) To bank on him as a true suspense movie star in the same league with Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson is a bold casting move. We'll have to see how it plays out.

As far as writing and directing goes, M. Night Shyamalan is easy to criticize but hard to replace. He brings a certain amount of awe and reverence to his films, treating each one more like a novel than a million dollar babysitter for the summer. He is the cinema's answer to Stephen King--and somehow, unlike King, retains his soul and produces more than "burger and fries" entertainment. To suggest he's on the same level as Hitchcock is a bit premature. However, he is still a relatively young director and with an Oscar nomination already in his resume, his career is far from being in the water.

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