Film Review: The Sixth Sense

                                                             (Fig 1: Movie Poster)


 M. Night Shyamalan's 1999 film 'The Sixth Sense' uses elements of misdirection, storytelling and good camera work to create such an engaging film that you can't take your eyes off it. The film follows child psychologist Dr. Malcolm who in order to help a young boy named Cole must know the boys secret: he can see the dead.  

The film feels like it should be a horror movie with the way in which the ghosts are scarred from the ways they died, but also heartwarming in a weird way with the build up to the climax. The Guardian Illustrates this well, "The Sixth Sense isn’t a bloodfest or a whodunnit thriller: some may make the case it isn’t even a horror movie. But the quiet dialogue, the doe-eyed Osment and the sporadic yelp of violins create a tangible sense of dread that makes watching it an overwhelmingly freaky experience." (Cain, 2014) As mentioned in the Guardian review, the violins used create a freaky atmosphere, when the violins come in or sound in general you can feel an eeriness building which then adds to the suspense. 


The ghosts in this film are sort of a subplot, up until Cole says he sees dead people the ghosts are mainly suggested rather than shown. For example, the scene where Cole's mum is looking at pictures of him she sees  "When the ghosts appear, they whisk past the camera, [..] building to full scale revelations of seemingly normal apparitions — with the exception of their fatal wounds" (Nathan, 2000)



"The solution to many of the film's puzzlements is right there in plain view" (Ebert, 1999) this quote sums up the film quite nicely. Throughout the film Shyamalan drops subtle hints to the ending. In the whole film Crowe can only talk to Cole, Shyamalan uses the clever idea of a decaying marriage to hide the truth about Crowe. The scene where the couple are in a restaurant, Crowe's wife looks straight through him but made to look as if she had acknowledged him and takes the bill before him even though he wouldn't have been able to  anyway. Also, the whole coin trick scene demonstrates how Shyamalan keeps trying to distract us from working out the truth about Crowe. 

Bibliography 

Cain, S. (2014). The Sixth Sense: the film that frightened me most. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2014/oct/22/the-sixth-sense-film-frightened-me-most-sian-cain [Accessed 20 Mar. 2018].

Ebert, R. (1999). The Sixth Sense Movie Review & Film Summary (1999) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-sixth-sense-1999 [Accessed 20 Mar. 2018].

Nathan, I. (2000). EMPIRE ESSAY: The Sixth Sense. [online] Empire. Available at: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/empire-essay-sixth-sense/review/ [Accessed 20 Mar. 2018].

Illustration:

Fig 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk5SccTB7gU