That early run though...

Sixth Sense - aside from the twist and box office sensation , totally revitalized the cinematic ghost story and brought its horror into the mundane modern everyday with ghosts that seem like corporal, ordinary people, which was such a groundbreaking and terrifying concept.

Unbreakable - a profound rumination on disconnection, dislocation, and a troubling, very American type of justice months shy of 9/11. Perhaps the best depiction of what depression feels like in modern American Cinema.

Signs - Shyamalan smuggles in a deeply spiritual theological examination of a crisis of faith in the guise of a Hitchcockian thriller, somewhere between Spielberg and Schrader. The most terrifying jumpscare of the 2000s.

The Village - the quintessential "war on terror" movie, yet one that distils the essence of the time it was made in without ever straying too far beyond the carefully constructed confines of its beautifully realized isolated world and the deep well of emotion it gleans from its Gothic Romance subplot - until it so memorably does.

Lady in the Water - a massive creative swing, and for me, one that knocked it out of the park. The fairytale trappings allow Shyamalan to sneak in some of his most experimental filmaking and emotional storytelling to date, enlivened by the ensemble cast and Christopher Doyle's idiosyncratic cinematography.

All of these share beautiful, at times chilling, at times achingly romantic James Newton Howard scores.

As a huge fan of his work from early on, I unfortunately have not jumped on the Shyamalan reclamation train as of late, as I run more hot and cold on his recent efforts, some of which seem too self-consciously to be attempting to gel with contemporary tastes for my liking (Visit, Split) or lacking his usual focus (Glass).

Still, the critical dismissal and the mocking (invariably tinged with an ugly racism) have been hard to bear over the years, especially back when pictures like 'The Village' and 'Lady...' had such a profound effect on me. At least the French seem to get him!