Through revealing interviews with M. Night Shyamalan's childhood friends and neighbors, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn (Best Feature Documentary, MY ARCHITECT: A SON'S JOURNEY, 2003; MY FATHER'S GAR... more »DEN) seeks to uncover the director's most intimate secrets and learn how they've been woven into the stories of his intensely powerful movies! And in addition to talks with cast and crew members, you'll witness insightful discussions with celebrities. As intriguing as Shyamalan's films themselves ... you don't want to miss this fascinating attempt to shed light on the unseen events and influences that have helped shape the spellbinding films of a masterful artist!« less
R. Williams | portland, OR United States | 12/28/2004
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I saw this 'documentary' when it originally aired on Sci-Fi Channel as a special promo for the movie Village. It's not a documentary in any sense of the word, it's a 'mystery' that attempts to put a mystical spin on the life of filmmaker Shyamalan. What it is, is a lousy TV special that is overly long and is a bad Blair Witch-like ripoff.
There is very little screen time with Shyamalan, and what is there is mostly garbage. None of this is really about Shyamalan. It's completely fictional. If the people being interviewed in here are really Shyamalan's friends and not actors I would be surprised. Don't even bother with this DVD."
Not what I thought
C. LAGARDE | Philadephia Pa, USA | 01/03/2006
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I received this DVD thinking it was a true documentary. Unfortunately I didn't read the amazon reviews, or i would have known that this is a fictional work and not a documentary at all. If you want to know more about M. Night, DO NOT GET THIS. I thought this entire production was cheezy and very predictable. I felt i wasted my time watching this. If M. Night had a hand in creating this, it was only to put his face in it and receive royalties from sales. It sucks. Period."
Entertaining, documentary or not
Amanda Chu | Taiwan | 10/13/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Yes it is very likely a promo for the upcoming Night's film at the time. It is nevertheless good entertainment. Scarier than all of Night's films. If Night had been the real director of the documentary, I would say it was the best work he had done as a horror film director. The sketched portrait of "Henry", Night's supposed ghost friend, was really disturbing and haunted me for a very long time. Again, it is good entertainment, if you don't get too hung up on whether it is fiction disguised as a documentary and that it was the means to get more publicity for Night."
Fascinating, but not how you'd think
Rex Macaroe | Andover | 06/23/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I first saw this on Sci Fi and regrettably took it seriously. I found what the filmmaker came up with interesting but farfetched.
I did, however, really enjoy watching the events play out. Even as a work of fiction and a mockumentary it holds up, keeping you on edge.
But thing that most took me in was just how merciless the filmmaker in it was. He uncovers deep secrets about Night's past, things that he had no business digging up. Night's reluctance to discuss his drowning would've been understandable given how traumatizing it would've been. On top of that, he put it on national television!
What truly interested me was waiting to see how far he would go for the sake of the film.
The film left me wanting answers but feeling guilty for doing so. Is it worth damaging a man's emotional stability to study the nature of the universe? In this I would've said no, but I enjoyed confronting the issue via a film that takes the opposition."
Duh. It's a mockumentary.
Isaac A. Perez | 10/19/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"All you guys complaining about how bad this movie was... you gotta remember that the point of this film was to of course (1) Attract an audience (2) Entertain an audience (and 3) Enjoy. If M.N.S. really wanted his fans to know what he was all about, you'd see him on every talk show, movie critic, and ET show on TV. This film was awesome. It did it's job, left the audience on the edge of their seats. If you have to be so anal about documentaries, the go watch a documentary. This is a MOCKumentary. Not real. Not intended to fool anyone. Just meant to entertain."