There aren't too many filmmakers in the world that can spark passionate debate and heated discussion from their movies like M. Night Shyamalan. To a large degree, that's a good thing. It proves that M. Night Shyamalan can touch on the very essence of what makes audiences relate and react to movies, be it positive or negative. In one word - "emotion". Whether Shyamalan makes you laugh or cry, or he leaves you scared and angry, his movies elicit strong emotional responses. From The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable to Signs, The Village, and Lady in the Water, moviegoers still talk about his movies with the same passion as if they were just released.

Now M. Night Shyamalan returns to the director's chair for his latest film, The Happening, a paranoid "end-of-the-world" thriller about a family on the run from a crisis that threatens all of mankind, starring Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, and John Leguizamo.

Leading up to the release of The Happening on June 13, M. Night Shyamalan took a seat with journalists at the film's recent press junket to shed light on the story, his own beliefs of the world, the non-Western influences in the movie, its spirituality, and his greatest fear.

M. Night Shyamalan on how the story of The Happening reflects his own world view:

"You know, they’re all a little bit like therapy, all of these movies, and if something is bothering me - family things - I'm always working them in a journal way. But it does represent things that are on my mind and I think everybody in our generation is starting to worry about these types of things right now - it’s an election year and everything, thinking about the future. It’s interesting; with all of these slew of 'end of the world' movies is an anxiety that’s in the air and it mimics kind of in the '50s the same kind of anxieties that were about our future. Where are we headed? Are we going in the right direction? Is it too late to change course? All in the back of my head, I never thought I was actually all that serious a person. But when I sit down to write, I guess more adult things come out."

Shyamalan on the film's "R" rating and the freedom he had:

You know, it was interesting - I got an R on two other movies, Sixth Sense and Village. I got an R rating initially for the intensity of certain scenes and then you just pull back a sound effect - we were right on the line and I could always just pull back a sound effect and re-submit it and they would go, ‘Oh, that’s so much better.’ All I did was take out some sound effects and it’s always the impact, because what you emotionally feel is different than what I actually showed. But this one, the screenplay I wrote, there was just no way to do it any other way, and then I thought about it. One of the movies I was thinking about was Pan’s Labyrinth. I was thinking about that a lot when I made the decision. I didn’t want to make it an agenda, you know. You want to make an organic decision about what does the material want to do. And when I thought about Pan's Labyrinth, which has visceral moments of violence juxtaposed against the softer things that are going on against the canvas, it gave it authority and teeth. A PG-13 version of Pan’s Labyrinth, for me, wouldn’t have had that kind of impact. It wouldn’t have stayed with me the way that movie has stayed with me, so it felt like the right balance of things. It was exciting and disturbingly easy to shoot all of those scenes, I had such a fun time."

M. Night on his own non-Western influences and the spirituality of The Happening:

"It’s interesting, because the Native American culture, that’s all it’s about. And my middle name, Night, is actually an American Indian name. And that’s what I felt attached to as a kid, the Native American culture, is their relationship to nature and worshipping the sky, the rock, the bear. That relationship felt correct then as a kid and it feels correct now as an a adult. It’s interesting - all of our religions, so little is really said about how we should feel towards nature and it’s an interesting thing to get the hierarchy back in line with the way it is. We’re just one of many creatures on the planet."

On tying in rational thought to the spirituality within the film:

"Well, I was reading the Einstein biography when I was writing the screenplay. I don’t know if you read that book, it’s fantastic, and one of the things that struck me - and maybe you would read the book and not even see it - but I saw it in there, was that Einstein was this guy... He kind of rejected religion and was kind of atheistic and then did the wondrous things in his 20s and got really into it. Then, in the gaps in science, he started seeing a hand. And in his point of view, the hand is God or a divine kind of [question of] - is something there? His life struggle was finding an overall formula, an overall thing that could define the design of things and a belief that that was there. And then he became very religious again, like the ultimate man of science became a man of faith. In a way, when I was writing Elliot, it effected Elliot because he’s just a high school science teacher and he has plenty of gaps in his knowledge of science. And I said, 'You’re just a regular science teacher. You’re not going to be the hero who figures out something, it’s not like that.' But in those gaps you see he honors those things and that’s why Mark [Wahlberg] felt like the right cast, because obviously he’s a man of faith. And the things we don’t know, the lack of need to define it in a closest category, is something inspiring when I see it in somebody, whether it’s Einstein or in Elliot’s character, or in Mark. So it really is kind of a question of science to almost give evidence to something else."

Shyamalan on whether The Happening is a popcorn movie and if it's possible to blend faith, spirituality, and popcorn:

"One of the things I said to everybody, the cast and crew - ‘We’re making a movie about an important subject. This is a B-movie. Let’s get ourselves straight here: This is just a great B-movie and we’re making the best B-movie we can. But that’s our job, we’re making a B-movie. If the themes of the movie have something that sticks with you, great, but we’re not going to put that in front of the movie. We’re going to have a lot of fun. It’s a paranoia movie we just need to pound away, that’s our job.’ I was really clear about that. So, in that way, it was meant to be entertainment, but all of my movies are a little bit of that. A reporter was asking me yesterday, "Why don’t you go make a pure popcorn movie then make an arthouse one, because it seems like you want to do?’ And I go, ‘The problem is, they’re both my instincts, you know.’ I sort of have one leg in each place, which, as you know, sometimes pisses off one group and then sometimes pisses off the other group. My wife is like, ‘Just make one or the other!’ I wish I could, as it ends up I do think about all of these kinds of spiritual things and I do love cheeseburgers, I do love Seinfeld, I do love Coca-Cola, and I do love Michael Jordon. It’s just me. So if I took one side away, the side that really loves to read about philosophy and these kinds of things, and I just pretended that didn’t exist, it would be a lie. And if I pretended I wasn’t jumping up and down watching the Celtics last night, that would be a lie as well. It’s that balancing act, trying to be honest."

M. Night Shyamalan on his greatest fear:

"I think all fear comes from - I change my thinking about it. My analysis of fear has come down to the factor of being alone, that it’s all based in versions of that. So if you take random things that you’re scared of - scared of flying or you’re scared of the new job that you have - it’s all related to the feeling of - 'I’m going to have emotions and no one else will have those emotions. I’ll be alone in some manner.' So if you’re in a plane and you’re scared - you know, I’m scared of flying but if I talk to the pilot or I talk to somebody else, you don’t feel as scared. It’s the human connection. You’re not alone anymore, you have a commonality. I’ve said that art, I believe, is the ability to convey that we’re not alone. That’s the power of art, and fear is the flip of that. It’s always been in our genetics since we’ve been cavepeople or whatever. You know, fear protects us - 'Don’t go down that road, you’ll be alone. We don’t know what’s down that road.' Being alone is not good, there’s safety in this. He’ll protect me, she’ll protect me, and together we’re safer. Now it’s kind of flipped on us and has become a limiting factor. We’re scared to put our kids in the backyard now because our neighbors might do something. But our neighbors are wonderful people. The assumption is wrong. It’s the same stats as when I was [young] running around on a bike, but we’re so much more scared now and nothing’s changed except for fear. And the fear is built on itself because we get more and more isolated until your fear has been realized - you’re all alone."