Customer Reviews

The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When I first watched this when it first aired on The Sci-Fi channel, I couldn't stop watching it! I thought it was real, and as soon as it came out on DVD, I bought it! I made my fiance watch it and she even liked it, then it was brought to my attention that it was fake, and a publicity stunt. I didn't believe it at first, and I still for some reason don't want to believe that it's fake, even though it is. We still love it, and it's if you liked his movies, you'll love this documentary!

I stopped watching the video more than midway through. It was not what I expected. I collect documentaries about directors I like (Fellini, Kurbick...). With this DVD,I felt like a stalker/weirdo waiting and watching Kahn trying to make something out of nothing. I am very surprised the SCI FI Channel had anything to do with this. I love Mr. Shyamalan's abilities as a director because he can set a mood with a strange but plausible storyline that is tight and keeps me interested in what might happen next. No big loud special effects... Would have been nice to touch on his creative process. I felt Mr Kahn infringed on everyone's privacy and lied to most of the people with the "unauthorized interviews". So, I stopped watching the DVD. This DVD was a present. My friend spent almost $25.00 for this hoax, joke or bad attempt at making a documentary.
I'M NOT LAUGHING SCI-FI CHANNEL BUT, I BET MR KAHN, MR SHYAMALAN AND EVERYONE INVOVLED LAUGHED ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK!
I dont know what to do with the DVD except trash it or use it as a very expensive coaster for my coffee. I wish I could send it back broken into a thousand pieces to the SCI FI folks.
Shame. Save your money. Skip this DVD. Please.

M. Night fans should watch this. It's just down right creepy how he got everything to line up. I enjoyed it. Great for Halloween.

I can't wait to get this DVD. I'm going to order it right after I get done writing this short review. I saw the original airing on Sci-Fi channel.
First of all, it shouldn't take anyone more than a few minutes to realize it's a mockumentary. If you watch the whole thing and still think it's not fiction, then I'd like to let you know that I have a bridge in New York I can sell to you. Yes, it makes fun of paranormal documentaries, which are really mockumentaries anyway. And are some of the events of M. Night's childhood based on reality? Maybe who knows. Didn't the start of "Snakes On A Plane" say "based on a true story"? Yeah right.
Also, I liked this better than The Village. (Spoiler Warning)At about 40 minutes into The Village I turned to my friend and said, "They're really in the present, not really in colonial times." I based my hunch on the fact that the colonial village didn't have a church and when they sat down to eat they didn't really pray, did they? Not in the way people of that time period would anyway. I think this was M. Night tipping off the audience in the way great writers can do using subtlety. I don't always guess the endings of movies but that time I was right.
Anyway, I'm a big M. Night fan and i own most of his movies (not The Village) but just think of this one as tongue-in-cheek with scary moments and dramatic performances. I don't think any of the performers in this movie were not performing from a script or at least being directed in their improvisations. It's really well-done. Remember when some people thought Blair Witch was real at first? That was funny, too.
Love your work, Mr. Shyamalan. Keep them coming. Thank you.

i consider myself as a great movie critic and im a hard to please guy when it comes to movies..... i consider night as one of the caliber directors but when it comes to this one its a CREATIVE PUBLICITY STUNT, hey, better this than watching boring interviews in entertainment channels about upcoming movies.....it is clearly fictional and i would say night had a "hand" in making this documentary more than just being interviewd....if you bought this DVD just shelf it near the Blair Witch DVD.