I think it's so wonderful that M. Night Shyamalan's daughter has grown up to be a filmmaker. I can just imagine her childhood, growing up watching all of her father's incredible films and knowing that's what she wanted to do one day. And then having the master himself to teach you first hand. What more could you ask for? I really wanted to like this film, but it just didn't work for me.
You can see that Ishana Shyamalan has had some incredible influence on her in her formative years, because this film is very well made. It's beautiful to look at and the way some of the shots are created is nothing short of masterful.
The problem with this film lies in the absurd story. I understand it was based on a book, and I can kind of see it working in book form because when you have to imagine something like this yourself your brain naturally does it in a way that makes sense to you. However, seeing someone else's version of it in movie form is a hard pill to swallow.
And for that reason it was hard to ever take the film all that seriously. I tried to buy into it, I really did, but it just wasn't feasible. So I was never scared for these characters and I wasn't intrigued by where the story would go. It didn't leave me with a lot left to grasp onto.
Still, for a debut film effort this is better than most and there is a lot of promise here. I feel sure that if Ishana Shyamalan gets her hands on the right script she will do something special with it. 5/10.