When he burst onto the scene with The Sixth Sense in 1999, M. Night Shyamalan was widely regarded as one of the most promising new directors in Hollywood. But his career since has had more than its share of ups and downs, resulting in successes like Unbreakable and critical and commercial duds like The Happening.

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12 The Happening

11 The Last Airbender

Every M. Night Shyamalan Movie Rotten Tomatoes Score 13 IMAGES

10 Wide Awake

9 After Earth

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8 Lady in the Water

7 The Visit

Glass Gallery 6 IMAGES

Having made a self-funded resurgence - a trail that began by taking out a $5 million dollar loan to make 2015's The Visit and then using The Visit's profits to make another low-budget scare-fest, 2016's Split - Shyamalan is now back on top, so to speak. He's still making quaint films when compared to the MCU blockbusters, for example, as his latest film, Glass , only came with a $20 million price tag,With Glass opening huge, completing an Unbreakable trilogy which none of us thought was possible a few years ago, we figured it was the perfect opportunity to rank the films in Shyamalan's resume. From 1998's Wide Awake to the recent return of Unbreakable's David Dunn and Elijah Price, here's a rundown of the director's films, from weakest to strongest. (Note: This list only includes films that Shyamalan has directed.)The Happening starred Mark Wahlberg as a science teacher who flees Philadelphia in the wake of mass suicides across New England. Joining him are his wife (Zoey Deschanel), friend (John Leguizamo), and friend's daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez) as they seek refuge in the countryside. Naturally, there's a trademark Shyamalan twist involving the real source of the "disease" afflicting humanity. But as far as twists go, it was pretty laughable and worked to basically undo the entire movie.By all rights, this source material should have made for a fantastic summer blockbuster. And it was a unique opportunity for Shyamalan to dabble in a larger franchise rather than working with his own stories and characters. Instead, Shyamalan managed to turn it into one of the worst movies of 2010. And mind you, this was the same year that Marmaduke and Sex and the City 2 were released. It was always an uphill battle attempting to cram an entire season's worth of mythology into one two-hour movie. Even so, The Last Airbender is a nonstop barrage of exposition and information. Worse, most of the performances are stilted and awkward, pretty much killing the strong character dynamics of the show. About all The Last Airbender had going for it were the nifty special effects.Wide Awake is equal parts comedy and drama. It features a young boy named Joshua (Joseph Cross), who embarks on a quest to find God after the death of his grandfather. Guiding him along his journey are his parents (Denis Leary and Dana Delaney) and a helpful prep school nun (Rosie O'Donnell). The end result of this rumination on religion and dying as seen through the eyes of a child is a mixed bag. On one hand, the movie sports a lot of stereotypical, broadly drawn characters and has a tendency towards melodrama. The main character is the sort of ultra-precocious child you only ever find in Hollywood movies. But on the other hand, Wide Awake shows ambition and a willingness to explore sensitive topics most family-friendly comedies shy away from.Though set a full millennia after human beings abandoned an uninhabitable Earth, After Earth is a tried and true "rite of passage" story about a boy who must become a man while braving the savage wilderness. It's equal parts effective and clunky, with both thrilling action sequences and not-so-stellar CGI, providing fans with the director's best effort in years. Though still not one worthy of a full comeback.Lady in the Water was pretty well panned by critics for the weak characters who were practically walking plot devices. The fact that Shyamalan cast himself as a writer whose work was destined to change the world only added fuel to the fire. Also, the film's primary human villain being a cranky film critic didn't help either. The phrase "self-indulgent" was thrown around a lot. But to be fair, the movie was still a showcase for Shyamalan's distinct directorial style, with camera angles precisely tuned to extract the maximum amount of emotion or tension from a scene. And there was a certain appeal in seeing Shyamalan tackle a different genre for once.The story centers on two teens who are sent away to spend a week with their estranged grandparents. Deciding to record their time with these old people they've never met, the two kids discover some truly terrifying things happening inside the house, involving people who are family. It's a tremendous blend of scares and laughs, with the format designed to unnerve us and keep us on edge, tapping into our dark fears of the familiar becoming terrifyingly unfamiliar.