I grew up watching Steven Spielberg and scary movies.

Shyamalan’s remark frames his artistic formation as a blend of two influential strands of popular cinema: Spielberg’s mainstream, emotionally legible storytelling and the genre mechanics of horror. Read together, the pairing suggests an origin for Shyamalan’s signature approach—high-concept narratives grounded in family dynamics and wonder, but structured around suspense, dread, and revelation. The quote also implies a self-conscious lineage: he positions his work not as “art-house” horror but as crowd-facing, story-first filmmaking that uses fear as a vehicle for character and moral stakes. In short, it’s a compact statement of taste that doubles as an explanation of his tonal hybridity.