M. Night Shyamalan is Almost Finished with the Split Sequel Script

It’s been a rough few years for M. Night Shyamalan. The writer-director’s debut film, The Sixth Sense, is still fondly remembered as having one of the all-time great plot twists. The film featured strong acting performances from Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osmet back in his prime, poignant themes and a creepy atmosphere accented by that scene of a girl puking everywhere. But for the following 14 years, Shyamalan continued to make films with diminishing returns, eventually bottoming out with the horrific The Last Airbender and After Earth.

Then, in 2015, Shyamalan decided to return to his roots: horror. After wasting his talents on big-budget schlock, Shyamalan came crawling back to the genre that made him famous with the highly underrated The Visit. Critics hesitantly gave the film their approval but many were still wary of how many times the director had burned them before. The film featured another instance of Shyamalan’s signature end-of-film twist, which has historically had highly variable results.

That all changed earlier this year with the exceptional Split. The film’s small scope—and tiny $9 million budget—focused on three girls kidnapped by a man with split personality disorder. A surprise sequel to one of Shyamalan’s early great films—Unbreakable—the film managed to be both terrifying and surprisingly heartfelt, much like the best films in Shyamalan’s catalogue. It was an admirable return to form for one of the few remaining auteur directors, and critics responded appropriately.