LOL, yeah that's where I am with SPLIT myself. I find he conjures up tremendous tension with barely anything at all. People in a room. Slow camera moves. Closed doors, open doors. I've said it before. I want him to work with another writer, but in the same way Hitchcock or Kurosawa did. They came up with the stories and trusted the scripts to their collaborators. Shyamalan is far too precious with his own material. He needs counterbalance.
I hear you about the Spielbergian connection, which I would maintain for his visual style as a mix with Hitchcock, but I'm a bit different in terms of story. Spielberg's family aspect is usually incidental to the story, even though his prodigious middle era of WAR OF THE WORLDS and AI and MINORITY REPORT are steeped in family issues; plus they're more about the perspective of disparity. Even in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, which depicts a child who was very much like Steven was to his own father.
Whereas Shyamalan rather integrates the family more thoroughly to the plot. SIXTH SENSE is about communicating, or rather the difficulty of family communication, and so the film works through the familial issues and the emotional climax occurs during a traffic jam, inside a car, with barely any special effects.
Spielberg's is a child who can never embrace his father; there is a wide chasm between them. Shyamalan endeavors toward resolutions and re-connection.
