The complaints (listed in the tweet thread) has comparison shots and it's... 
(Image removed from quote.)
I mean, some of them aren't there. But others like how the shots are composed certainly is -worthy.
Not the first time M. Night has plagiarized, so I'm willing to give this writer the benefit of the doubt.
I admit I only skimmed it, but... most of it seems like a real fucking stretch, especially claims like "its really rare in films to see a shot of someone doing something from the perspective of being outside the window of a house looking in, then cutting to the perspective of being inside".
Like, all the thimgs claimed as being so novel that it could only be copying from her are all tropey as fuck horror film conventions, right down to the central premise of spooky doll that comes to life
You're missing the point: A lot of the shots
seem to copy her work. Now, while yes the comparison shots and tropes/etc. are things that are
impossible to not copy, the same premise, the same shots (nearly, with a few changes), and general same-story is something to
about.
It goes into territory of "how can you copy-write an idea/there is nothing new under the sun."
But you could compare this incident to something like:
Bethesada Online Studios literally ripping off 1:1 (nearly) a Dungeons and Dragon's adventure writer's campaign/module to CTRL/CMD+F "find and replace" all mentions of certain words for Elder Scroll's-centric terms and thinking nobody would notice.Thing is, their "Can we copy your homework, WotC?" "Sure, just change it up a bit so it doesn't look obvious you copied." "Ok." -meme-izm broke because the original author's (and those modules players) saw the copy-writing-replacement and went "WTF, Beth?" to where Beth actually admitted they fucked up and removed the campaign (I'm not even sure if it's possible to find on the internet anymore since I think Beth paid search engines to scrub it, that's how badly they fucked up)
The
idea/intention of the piece if what this allegation comes down to. You could say M. Night just had a similar idea to the "Running Out Of Time" book (a person that believes they're in a different time from the actual time finds out and has to go into the world, CULTURE SHOCK and other things) with a few changes, and sure: That happens a lot of the time and fan-fiction writers and actual writers tweak these things/tropes and play around with them to make new stories/things.
But when you copy 80% of the same story beats/tropes/camera-shots/writing-lines/whatever details you want to do here, it certainly "activates the almonds" in regards to "ok, this is creepily close to what I've written, did they see my shit, ape-it wholesale and think nobody would notice?" So she certainly has a case, especially if she can prove the executive producer saw her work since she worked with him in the past (and would have had to have sent a portfolio including her script/movie of this similar "idea"/story) and copied it/told M. Night about the idea and M. Night worked on it unknowingly or knowingly.
