Perhaps the most polarizing filmmaker in Hollywood is M. Night Shyamalan. At his best, Shyamalan is a master of suspense and atmosphere, and he prepares twisty endings that will leave audiences on the edge of their seats. Sometimes the surprises don't land, and many times they fail. Nevertheless, Shyamalan is a great filmmaker who stands behind original stories that draw people into the cinema.

Shyamalan's next nightmare is the psycho thriller Trap, which has been described as "the 'Silence of the Lambs' at a Taylor Swift concert. Josh Hartnett plays Cooper, a serial killer known as "The Butcher," who attends a pop star's concert with his daughter (Ariel Donoghue). The concert is a trap for the FBI to catch the killer, and Cooper must find a way to escape.

Ahead of the release of "The Trap," we rank Shyamalan's seven best films.

A psycho-thriller set in the apocalypse is a perfect fit for Shyamalan's style. Based on Paul G. Tremblay's 2018 novel "The Cabin at the End of the World," Shyamalan's "Knock on the Cabin" stars Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge as Eric and Andrew, who vacation with their young daughter Wen (Kristen Kui) in a remote Pennsylvania cabin. They play a married couple.

The trip goes to hell after Leonard (Dave Bautista) and his crew arrive and take the family hostage. Leonard explains that one of Eric, Andrew, or Wen must die in order to prevent the destruction of the world. The cinematography in Knock at the Cabin is bold and gorgeous, and Bautista proves he is more than a muscle-bound brawler with his nuanced and emotional performance. The ending is controversial, but overall this is an effective and fear-inducing thriller.

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In "The Village," a group of settlers live within the confines of their community, refusing to venture beyond the village boundaries for fear of the dangerous creatures that inhabit the forest. If the villagers do not leave the forest, the creatures will leave them alone. When Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) is fatally injured, his lover, blind Ivy Elizabeth Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard), enters the forest to procure medical supplies from a nearby town.

The twist ending is one of Shyamalan's most controversial, with critics rating it inferior to his previous three films. However, The Village features Shyamalan's most stellar cast: Howard, Phoenix, William Hurt, Adrien Brody, Cherry Jones, and Brendan Gleeson. The actual village is one of Shyamalan's best settings, featuring spectacular production design and beautiful cinematography by Roger Deakins.

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The backstory of The Visit may be better than the film, but it is certainly the most underrated of Shyamalan's films. After the failure of "The Last Airbender" and "After Earth," Shyamalan found himself in "director's jail," where two siblings (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould) spend a weekend at their estranged grandparents' (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie) house The idea for the found footage horror The Visit was passed over by many studios.

Shyamalan eventually bet against himself, taking out a $5 million loan on his Pennsylvania home to finance "The Visit." The gamble paid off, and "The Visit" grossed nearly $100 million, making it Shyamalan's return to the box office. A staple of found footage, with its shaky camera and striking close-ups, "The Visit" is arguably Shyamalan's best genre film, one that does not rely on faith or an affinity for the supernatural. It is also his most entertaining work.

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Sixteen years after "Unbreakable," Shyamalan returned with the unlikely superhero sequel "Split." Kevin Wendall Crumb (James McAvoy) suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Kevin's 23 personalities include Dennis, an ornery man with OCD; Patricia, an elderly woman; and Hedwig, a nine-year-old boy. Dennis kidnaps three teenage girls, one of whom is Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy). All personalities warn the girl of the coming of the "Beast," the last personality with superhuman strength and speed.

McAvoy gives one of the most powerful performances in a Shyamalan film. McAvoy is fearless, charismatic, and authentically terrifying when he becomes the Beast. Moreover, Shyamalan's excellent camerawork is on full display, enlivening the claustrophobic feeling of the basement. The final reveal of David Dunn is Shyamalan's best twist since "Signs".

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Shyamalan's atmospheric horror masterpiece is his version of the alien invasion film, Sign. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) is a former priest who left the church after his wife died in a car accident. When crop circles appear on his farm, Graham initially assumes it is a prank by intruders. However, Graham and his family (brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), son Morgan (Rory Culkin), and daughter Bo (Abigail Breslin)) soon learn that extraterrestrials have invaded Earth.

Shyamalan is firing on all cylinders in Signs, skillfully using sound and light to convey fear and suspense. Signs is Shyamalan's most philosophical film, as he examines the loss of faith and how humans use religion to explain incomprehensible events. Shyamalan's greatest trick is to make a film about grief look like an alien invasion thriller.

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With all due respect to "Pray Anger" and "Wide Awake," the Shyamalan audiences know began with "The Sixth Sense." In this film, 9-year-old Cole Searle (Haley Joel Osment) sees the dead. After witnessing a reality that cannot be explained, Cole is ostracized and bullied by his peers. Cole's only ally is Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis), a grieving child psychologist who helps Cole deal with his ghost problem. Malcolm reasoned that Cole should communicate with the ghosts and help them find peace.

"The Sixth Sense" would not be possible without Osment's sensational performance as one of the top five child actors. This creepy thriller was nominated for six Academy Awards, making it one of the rare films to break out at the Oscars. For better or worse, the twist at the end defined Shyamalan's career. It's still a brilliant twist, but once you know it, it becomes less effective each time you rewatch it.

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In today's society, superhero films are defined by big budgets, far-reaching productions, larger-than-life characters, widely recognized characters, distinctive costumes, and epic adventures. Shyamalan threw out all those clichés for "Unbreakable": what if the superhero lived among the people and didn't know he was a superhero? David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is that hero, the sole survivor of a train crash that killed 131 people.

David is unscathed, with not a scratch on his body, which begs the question of how he survived this fatal accident. David further questions his place on Earth after meeting Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a comic book fanatic who suffers from a disease that causes brittle bones. Elijah believes David to be a superhero with superhuman strength and immortality. This hypothesis causes David to ponder his talents and his existence in this world. Unbreakable is the epitome of slow burn, taking its time to plot and saving the twists for the perfect moment. Shyamalan's quiet, gritty superhero film is his masterpiece and a standout in the comic genre.

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