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The twist at the endTradition of satisfying surprises keeps audiences hanging onBy Todd Leopold  Director M. Night Shyamalan, left, and star Paul Giamatti in "Lady in the Water" ON CNN TVWatch "Showbiz Tonight" on CNN Headline News, 11 p.m. ET weekdays.
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- In 1950, Mickey Spillane turned in the manuscript to the third Mike Hammer tale, "Vengeance Is Mine." Except he left out one thing: the last word. Normally, the last word in a novel wouldn't make that much difference. "Vengeance Is Mine," however, had been constructed so cleverly that the last word revealed what, in Spillane's words, "the book was about." "The editor said, 'What was the word? What was the word?'," the recently deceased author recalled in a documentary. "I said, 'Give me a thousand bucks,' and I gave him the word." It's a special ability, the talent to create clever twists that satisfy logically and emotionally. O. Henry, the short story writer, did it so frequently that surprise endings are often saluted with his name. The mystery writer John Dickson Carr "The Twilight Zone" was a repository of them, from its adaptation of the Damon Knight short story "To Serve Man" to Rod Serling originals such as "Eye of the Beholder." So was "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," particularly its wickedly wonderful episode "Lamb to the Slaughter." (You'll have to rent these if you want to see the plot twists; I'm not giving anything away.) Director and writer M. Night Shyamalan fancies himself an inheritor of Hitchcock's "master of suspense" mantle. He likes atmospheric tales with a touch of horror, and -- like Hitchcock -- usually casts himself in a role. (Hitchcock, of course, was satisfied with blink-and-you'll-miss-him cameos; Shyamalan tends to give himself a few lines.) Most of all, he likes to offer up a twist. "The Sixth Sense" has his most famous -- no, I'm not revealing that, either -- but his other movies, such as "The Village" and "Unbreakable," are also full of mysteries and red herrings. Shyamalan's new movie, "Lady in the Water," is based on what he describes as a "fairy tale" he told his children. But what, audiences are wondering, is the twist? Eye on Entertainment doubles back. Eye-opener"Lady in the Water" concerns Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), a nebbishy apartment complex manager. One day, he discovers a "narf" (Bryce Dallas Howard), a magical figure who finds herself stranded in our world. Heep has to get the narf back to her home, but figuring out how to do that -- and how to dodge villains including a "scrunt" and a critic named Mr. Farber -- tests him and the apartment building's tenants. Advance word hasn't been kind to the film, with many rumors of Shyamalan's ego and pretentions surfacing. Newsweek magazine went so far as to offer a "career intervention But the final twist is up to the audience. Its verdict will be rendered in the next few weeks. "Lady in the Water" opens Friday. On screenOn the tubeSound wavesPaging readersVideo center
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is equally hailed for his locked-room tales in which improbable deaths took place. 
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