I watched The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan tonight. I thought it would run an hour, but it went three hours and I watched the whole thing. It was outstanding. It was done in a Blair Witch style documentary format.

As the story goes…some folks are hired by Sci-Fi to do a documentary for his film The Village. It goes wrong from the start when they start asking questions not on the approved list. When they are shut out, they start searching for answers in other places. That is when it gets interesting.

Rather than doing a 30 minute puff special, Shyamalan creates this wonderful myth around himself. It uses material from past movies. It uses his website where documenters go to find information. They capture some amazing footage of regular people as they ask them if they believe in the supernatural. It even has Johnny Depp as the actor who passed on the lead role in Signs. You don’t what it real and what isn’t. And that it was M. Night wants.

It is brilliant at building his brand. It gives his fans exactly what they want. It asks more questions than it answers. If you get a chance, watch it!