REMAIN First Reactions Tease a “Heartbreaking” and "Scary as Hell" M. Night Shyamalan Thriller
M. Night Shyamalan just gave Beyond Fest audiences an unexpected early look at his next supernatural thriller, and it sounds like Remain might hit viewers right in the heart before scaring the hell out of them.
M. Night Shyamalan, the filmmaker behind The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, and Split, surprised fans with an impromptu screening of Remain at the 2026 Beyond Fest, and the first reactions coming out of the premiere have been overwhelmingly positive.
Considering how wildly audiences can disagree over a Shyamalan movie, that's certainly encouraging. His films tend to spark plenty of debate once the credits roll, with The Sixth Sense and perhaps Unbreakable standing among his most universally embraced work.
Remain stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Tate Gordon, a reclusive architect who moves to a small coastal town to finish his latest project. His life takes an unexpected turn when he meets an alluring young woman played by Phoebe Dynevor, who draws him out of isolation and into something far more dangerous.
The recent trailer initially plays like a romantic drama about two strangers falling for each other, but this is a Shyamalan movie, so romance isn't the only thing waiting for Tate.
It certainly appears that Dynevor's mysterious character may be a ghost, although there's a good chance the movie has a few more cards to play before revealing exactly what's happening.
The unusual mix of romance and supernatural suspense comes from a collaboration between Shyamalan and bestselling author Nicholas Sparks, whose books include The Notebook. Shyamalan recently explained how their partnership began:
“My new movie began with a conversation, an unexpected one, with a celebrated author, Nicholas Sparks. He sold more than 130 million books worldwide and wrote one of the most iconic love stories ever, The Notebook.
“Romance is his territory. Mine’s a little different. I’m drawn to suspense, to twists and tension and stories that leave you just a little unsettled long after they are over. That feels like home to me.”
He continued: “We started from nothing, just a couple of questions: What scares you? What moves you? What stays with you? We challenged each other. We traded ideas and slowly wove two very different perspectives into a single, thrilling, supernatural love story. In the end, we get to tell it our own way. Mine through film, Nicholas through his novel.”
This is a pretty fascinating pairing. Sparks knows his way around emotional romance, while Shyamalan loves taking seemingly ordinary situations and pulling them into increasingly strange territory. Judging by the early Beyond Fest response, that combination may have produced something both scary and heartbreaking.
Warner Bros. Pictures describes the movie as an unprecedented collaboration between Sparks and Shyamalan, with the official synopsis reading:
"When reclusive architect Tate Gordon moves to a small coastal town to complete his latest project, he encounters an alluring young woman who pulls him out of his shell, and into the center of a deadly mystery that hangs over the town."
Gyllenhaal and Dynevor are joined by Ashley Walters, Julie Hagerty, and Jay O. Sanders.
The first reactions coming out of Beyond Fest describe Remain as "scary as hell" and "heartbreaking," which is an intriguing combination for a supernatural love story. If Shyamalan and Sparks really managed to make the romance matter as much as the mystery, this could be one of the director's more interesting genre swings.
Remain arrives in theaters next Valentine's Day.