The Sixth Sense (1999)

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan | 107 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams, Mischa Barton, Donnie Wahlberg, Peter Anthony Tambakis, Jeffrey Zubernis, Bruce Norris, Glenn Fitzgerald, Greg Wood, Trevor Morgan, Angelica Torn, Lisa Summerour, Firdous Bamji

Things are not going well for M. Night Shyamalan. He has never been able to top his overwhelming international breakthrough film ‘The Sixth Sense’ (1999) (for the time being). ‘Unbreakable’ (2000), ‘Signs’ (2002) and ‘The Village’ (2004) still scored reasonably well, ‘Lady in the Water’ (2006) and ‘The Happening’ (2008) were completely slammed by the press and also the audience turned their noses up at it. You’re only as good as your last film, Shyamalan has also discovered. However, this ignores the fact that with ‘The Sixth Sense’ – contrary to popular belief, not his debut, but already his third film – he has put the paranormal thriller genre back on the map. ‘The Sixth Sense’ marked a drastic change in his life not only for the director, but also for almost everyone else involved. Bruce Willis profiled himself as an actor who had more to offer than being a tough action hero and finally felt taken seriously by his colleagues and by the press. The talented Australian actress Toni Collette forced her breakthrough in the United States and child star Haley Joel Osment became one of the youngest actors ever to be considered for major film awards.

‘I see dead people’ has become a classic movie quote. What Shyamalan does so well in ‘The Sixth Sense’ is leaving viewers in the dark until shortly before the end as to whether eleven-year-old Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) is actually seeing dead people or suffering from hallucinations. The acclaimed psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is the only one who can help him. His career comes to a screeching halt after he was gunned down in his own home by one of the few patients he couldn’t help, Vincent Gray (Donnie Wahlberg). Gray then committed suicide. Since then, Crowe has been looking for a way to deal with his guilt, to make amends for what he did wrong with Vincent. In Cole, who, like Vincent, is withdrawn, lonely and sometimes aggressive, he sees the ultimate opportunity to rectify his past mistakes. Cole comes from a broken home and lives alone with his mother Lynn (Toni Collette), who works hard to make ends meet and has no idea what her son’s big secret is. Crowe throws himself into the child, especially now that his wife has been cool and distant with him since the incident with Vincent Gray and his relationship is on the brink of death. His suspicion that there is much more to Cole than a conduct disorder is confirmed when the boy reveals to him that he can see dead people.

‘The Sixth Sense’ is soberly filmed. Shyamalan films stately, calm images and creates clear frames. He completely relies on the script he wrote and the strength of his actors. In this supernatural thriller, that strategy works out perfectly. In the subdued, almost hypothermic atmosphere he generates, the tension swells considerably. Apparently little happens during the first hour, but beneath the surface bubbles the great secret, the final apotheosis that Shyamalan works carefully towards and turns out brilliantly. In that famous final scene, all previous events suddenly fall into place. Moreover, Shyamalan suddenly manages to put the same events in a completely different perspective. As a result, ‘The Sixth Sense’ suddenly becomes much more than a supernatural thriller and turns out to be a tragic love drama. Incidentally, the supercooled way of filming does not mean that Shyamalan does not regularly terrify his viewers with wandering dead people and oppressive sound effects. However, these unavoidable elements – after all, this is a thriller – all serve the ultimate, deeper purpose.

Bruce Willis plays very cool, but that is (of course, you say afterwards) the intention. Toni Collette makes the most of a role that actually gives her far too little opportunity to profile herself. In one scene, towards the end of the film, she is given space to really color her mother-son relationship with Cole. It’s a scene that lingers. Olivia Williams briefly trots out as Crowe’s wife, but in fact can’t go wrong with this flat role. The great discovery of this film is Haley Joel Osment, who may be very young but already looks very mature. A frightened child might laugh, but Osment plays the part of Cole so well that you genuinely shudder with him. For a role like this you really have to be able to act as a child and Osment never disappoints. He arouses genuine emotions and comes across as very fragile. This is a boy who is really confused and dares not tell his secret to anyone – not even his mother – because he is afraid of being called a freak. Both he and Collette earned an Oscar nomination for their roles. In total, the film was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. James Newton Howard’s beautiful score also received a lot of praise.

M. Night Shyamalan revolutionized the dramatic thriller genre with ‘The Sixth Sense’. This film works on several levels: this is not so much a tense horror film as an emotional drama that revolves around the relationship between a boy and his psychologist, Malcolm and his wife, and Cole and his mother. Osment is a great discovery in a role that would have ruined the whole movie if played too cute and Collette shows the right amount of confusion and love for her strange son in every scene. Willis is the heart of the film with his subtle playing. But of course it’s Shyamalan who deserves the most credit for putting all the elements together. The muted colors, the subtle hints (e.g. the dropping temperature in the presence of a ghost and the clever use of the color red) and the surprising twist at the end are so well executed that you are completely misled. This modern, emotionally complex classic is as poignant as it is frightening.