Meet Karen Hershenson. She's the Arts and Entertainment editor, apparently, for the Contra Costa Times. She's irked because she got suckered by a Sci-Fi Channel mockumentary about M. Night Shyamalan. You know - the one that was outed as a hoax last week, even if the internal textual evidence wouldn't have been more than enough to tip off the viewer?



http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/living/9225022.htm?1c
Posted on Fri, Jul. 23, 2004

AND ANOTHER THING

Shame on Sci Fi and Shyamalan for hoax

I FEEL SO STUPID. So ripped off. And it's all M. Night Shyamalan's fault.

For a couple weeks, I'd been seeing teaser ads for a Sci Fi Channel documentary on Shyamalan, the director whose eerie movies such as "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs" have done killer box office and earned him a devoted following. His latest, "The Village," opens July 30.

The great thing about these movies is that they don't hit you over the head with horror; they're subtle, parlaying our own deep-seated fears and suspicions into something tangible. Shyamalan's movies get under your skin the way Hitchcock gets under your skin.

Supposedly, the Sci-Fi filmmakers had started out making a straightforward documentary about the director, but when they dug too deep, he withdrew from the project. Still, they forged ahead, uncovering surprising elements of his past. "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan" promised intrigue, and was promoted with rare fervor.

I like Shyamalan's films (well, except "Unbreakable"), as does my 14-year-old son, so we made plans to watch the three-hour documentary Sunday night. Even my husband, who usually checks out because he has to get up early for work, joined us.

The show was mesmerizing, building in intensity until we were all convinced that Shyamalan was in touch with the spirit world and that his movies were basically autobiographical. There were young groupie boys who looked liked zombies and a hyperactive Ouija board. Crows lighted whenever Shyamalan was onscreen, and the pizza guy gets so spooked by a Polaroid of the director (surrounded by a halo of strange light) that he bolts from the hotel room. There were unexplained technical difficulties during filming.

The climax comes when the filmmakers, who are no longer in touch with Shyamalan, discover that he nearly drowned -- maybe even completely drowned -- when he was a boy.

By the end, we just sat there, stunned. My son peppered me with questions about the supernatural: Does it exist? Can you see ghosts? Do crows mean anything? Can you stay at the bottom of a frozen pond for 35 minutes and live?

We had a long discussion about near-death experiences, with me telling him about people who claim to float above themselves in operating rooms, then snap back to life. By the time we went to bed, we all had the heebie-jeebies.

First thing Monday morning, I e-mailed our film critic asking if she had seen it. But before I could further make a fool of myself, a co-worker showed me an L.A. Times piece: "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan" was a hoax.

The guy is no more haunted than my cat, Lola.

Turns out the whole documentary was nothing more than an elaborate "Blair Witch Project"-type ruse. An over-the-top scheme to promote "The Village." Hollywood yanking us around by the choke-collar yet again.

Apparently the Associated Press and some online sites broke this news before the documentary aired, but I didn't see those reports.

"Perhaps we might have taken the guerrilla campaign one step too far," Sci Fi Channel president Bonnie Hammer stated. "We thought it would create controversy and it probably went one step too far."

The whole episode has really upset me for some reason. I hate to be duped. As a journalist, I like to think that I negotiate the media with a healthy dollop of cynicism; that I'm not easily taken. (Although I do know that compared to some of my colleagues, I'm pretty much Pollyanna.)

In a way, the whole "Buried Secret" campaign was a master stroke on Shyamalan's part -- yes, he was in on the deception from the beginning. It's raised my awareness of "The Village," a movie that really wasn't too high on my must-see list, unlike, say, "The Door in the Floor" or "Before Sunset."

So yeah, you guys pulled one over on us, the gullible public. Go you.

But is this what we want the media to do -- manipulate us? Ever since Orson Welles created widespread panic with his "The War of the Worlds" broadcast, we've understood the power that radio, television and print can have; movies too. In these highly political times, we newspaper types have tried more than ever to be really clear with readers, citing sources for even the tiniest bits of information.

But that's just us. The Sci Fi Channel and M. Night Shyamalan are show business. And as we know, Hollywood operates under a whole different set of rules. No rules, really.
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Karen Hershenson is the Times arts and entertainment editor. Reach her at khershen@cctimes.com, 925-XXX-XXXX.