Max just quietly added the most overlooked serial killer thriller of the year

As the current blockbuster era descends into mediocrity, moviegoers often complain about Hollywood’s allergy to original films. Thirty years agothe box office charts were packed with new stories that balanced mainstream entertainment value with (at least in some cases) real artistic merit. Now those graphs are dominated by $200 million sequels and recycled franchise IP, to the point where fresh ideas struggle to get their due. M. Night Shyamalan’s Fall is a textbook example; the cheerfully entertaining thriller, made by a director at the top of his game, was overshadowed by tentpole releases like Deadpool and Wolverine. In case you missed it this summer, FallMax’s arrival on Max is a welcome opportunity to right that wrong.

A twisted take on the cat and mouse genre, Fall starring Josh Hartnett as Cooper, a sweet father who leads a secret double life as a serial killer. Shyamalan’s approach to serial killers is overtly cartoonish, giving Cooper an amusingly simple nickname (“the Butcher”) and motivations rooted in Psycho-era cliché. Thanks to the PG-13 rating, the film avoids a detailed portrayal of his crimes. Instead, most of the action takes place at a pop concert, as Cooper accompanies his daughter Riley (Arial Donoghue) to see her idol Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan) amid a crowd of screaming teenage girls.

This, of course, is where the trap comes into the picture. Law enforcement received a tip that the Butcher will be attending Lady Raven’s show, and as soon as Cooper and Riley step through the arena doors, they are surrounded by a well-oiled machine of SWAT teams and FBI profilers all trying to identify which member of the public is a serial killer in disguise.

Like Cooper’s meticulously orchestrated double life, this entire concept is based on a dash of Hollywood nonsense. It’s a fantasy in which law enforcement is filled with devious investigators leading highly trained teams deployed at enormous expense to take down a single criminal mastermind. Meanwhile, Cooper quickly develops into a perversely charming antihero, vacillating between his zany father persona and his skills as a ruthlessly quick-thinking strategist.

Shyamalan has decades of experience making suspense thrillers, which quickly made us invested in the use of Cooper, an objectively bad guy who evades the FBI. Cooper’s problem-solving solutions benefit from the same appeal as heist films Ocean Elfwhile his relationship with his daughter gives us an emotional reason to root for his success.

At the same time, Fall is often downright hilarious. Much of the humor hinges on Hartnett’s fantastically committed performance, which brings out the absurdity of Cooper’s situation. There’s a definite element of dark comedy in him fighting for his life at an ersatz Taylor Swift concert, and for a few brief but memorable scenes we see a bewitched Kid Cudi chewing the scenery as Lady Raven’s theatrical pop star mentor.

This deft combination of suspense, comedy, and emotional heft is why Shyamalan has been a consistent commercial success for more than two decades, but that’s almost undermining the skills it takes to land on a film like Fall. It embraces the ridiculousness of its own premise and never feels ironic or self-conscious. Hartnett plays Cooper to the hilt, even in moments that feel like punchlines. And from a technical perspective Fall is much more thoughtful than the average contemporary blockbuster.

Filmed by acclaimed cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call me by your name, Challengers), Fall is full of bold visual choices that energize a deceptively static environment. Perhaps the most memorable image are the extreme close-ups of Hartnett’s face, in which Cooper’s eyes flicker between fatherly affection, steely calculation and soulless rage. Then there are the clever little details, like Shyamalan’s framing of the stage. To emphasize Lady Raven’s role as an untouchable celebrity, we are only allowed to see her in the audience from Cooper and Riley’s perspective.

Despite the mixed reception (a sad one 52% average on Metacritic), Fall will eventually get his due. That’s certainly been the case for several other Shyamalan films that started out with questionable reviews but have since been reassessed as critics warmed to his type of storytelling. Neither a serious art film nor throwaway franchise sludge, Fall represents the middle ground that has been gradually squeezed out of American cinema. It’s a messy but original crowd-pleaser, made with real skill and respect for the audience. Shyamalan understands the appeal of an extended thriller starring an impossibly competent guy, and he also believes the story needs to be told with guts. If you choose to miss out on that winning formula, you have only yourself to blame.