Like him, hate him, Shyamalan churns them out

Above : M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film is “Knock at the Cabin.” (Photo/Universal Pictures)

Ever since he burst on the movemaking scene in 1999 with his third feature film “The Sixth Sense,” M. Night Shyamalan has gradually attracted as many detractors as he has fans.

In fact, some of the cleverest critical quips made by critics in the intervening near-quarter century have come at Shyamalan’s expense.

You may remember David Edelstein’s describing “Lady in the Water” as “Like ‘Splash’ reworked by a grandiose Sunday-school teacher.”

Or Keith Uhlich of Slant Magazine writing about “The Village” that as “A high-camp mélange of Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ and Skinner’s ‘Walden Two,’ ‘The Village’ may be the year’s worst film.”

Even worse, take what Daily Telegraph critic Sukhdev Sandhu wrote about “The Last Arbender,” calling it “A quite breathtakingly inept hodge-podge of vapid spirituality, playground chop-socky and visual effects that takes 3D to an entirely new level.”

Regarding his latest offering, “Knock at the Cabin,” at-large critic James Berardinelli had a fairly innocuous reaction. “The film as a whole,” he wrote, “seems more like a series of missed opportunities than a ‘return to form’ for director M. Night Shyamalan, who continues to trade on a name he made two decades ago.”

Sarah Michelle Fetters was a bit more ironic. “I’m starting to think ‘Knock at the Cabin’ was one cinematic rap on the door I should have left unanswered,” she wrote.

Leave it to The New York Times’ A.O. Scott to top them both. “For all its skill and cunning,” he wrote, “ ‘Knock at the Cabin’ is an overwrought quasi-theological melodrama that also manages to be a half-baked thought experiment. It’s a thrill ride in a toy trolley.”

The movie continues to play in area theaters. See it and make up your own mind. Shyamalan likely won’t care either way.