"A really fun B-movie"?

I was looking for a little more than that Mr. Shyamalan. Still, I'm looking forward to The Happening.

After his 2006 flop "Lady In the Water," which was slammed by critics and grossed just $73 million at the box office worldwide, some critics say the pressure is on the 37-year-old Indian-born American, so he has returned to what he does best -- scaring people.

His two previous "scary" movies, 1999's "The Sixth Sense" starring Bruce Willis and 2002's "Signs" starring Mel Gibson, made more than $1.7 billion globally between them. But analysts are puzzled as to how "The Happening" will do when it opens around the world this week.

"His box office record has been all over the map, but he's held to such a high standard because of how well 'The Sixth Sense' did," said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Media By Numbers.

"I don't think this is going to be 'Lady in the Water,"' he said. "This is definitely going to be a stronger opening then that. The marketing has been pretty strong, and audiences are always intrigued by M. Night Shyamalan."

Brandon Gray, president of movie Web site Box Office Mojo, agreed. But he added that because Shyamalan is promoted as a key selling point -- his name appears above the title on movie posters -- a box office failure is more harmful to him.

"Even though 'Lady in the Water' is by no means the greatest flop ever and 'The Village' did a lot of business, it just disappointed a lot of people," Gray said.

"The Happening," starring Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel, sees an invisible killer spread throughout the U.S. Northeast, leaving people asking if it is a terrorist attack, a government conspiracy or an unexplainable act of nature.

"There's so many things to be paranoid about right now," said Shyamalan, adding he wanted to play on people's fears for the future about such things as terrorism and climate change. "I was so clear about what kind of movie I was making."

It's hard for me to identify with a "money-making" evaluation of M. Night's movies. I've loved every single one that I've seen, not because they were all scary movies or because they did well financially, but because they were good. I'm pretty sure The Happening will have a few surprises for us, even if it appears that Shyamalan is just trying to scare people.

For the record, though I do enjoy The Sixth Sense, I would have to rank the M. Night Shyamalan movies I've seen in this order:
5. The Sixth Sense
4. Unbreakable
3. The Village
2. Lady in the Water
1. Signs - Probably one of my favorite movies overall.

Looking at his Wikipedia page for a list of films I discovered that, allegedly, Shyamalan is going to create a live-action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a pretty creative animated show on Nickelodeon. Interesting ...