Seth Lamey
“I see dead people.” One line from the M. Night Shyamalan supernatural suspense-thriller The Sixth Sensei carried a marketing campaign and lifted the film to become the surprise hit of 1999. Despite barely being on the radar for films to see headed into a loaded 1999 film year to close out the century, the $35 million drama from the unknown indie director was a smash hit with audiences and critics alike. The film raked in nearly $700 million at the worldwide box office (#2 that year) and earned six nominated at the Academy Awards. M. Night Shyamalan had arrived into the mainstream, and his style and skills as a writer/director would leave their impact on horror/thrillers for years to come.
Although he had two features under his belt by 1999, Shyamalan’s cultural impact to that point was minimal. Praying with Anger (1992) was shown only at independent film festivals, and his comedy/drama Wide Awake (1998) was re-cut by Harvey Weinstein and ultimately buried. It was at that time he caught his big break, when Disney bought the rights to his script for The Sixth Sense, and distributed it under their Buena Vista/Hollywood Pictures studio. Written with Bruce Willis in mind as lead character Malcom Crowe, the film had its star attached to the project. Young actor Haley Joel Osment would be the key casting decision, as his dynamic performance as Cole Sear is vital to the success selling the main conceit of the script: a child who can sense dead people.
The Sixth Sense is as fulfilling on subsequent viewings as it is on its first. Once its surprise/twist ending is known, the rewatch becomes an examination of how well Shyamalan and his cast/crew tie it all together. The story focuses on child psychologist Malcom Crowe (Willis) and his case of Cole Sear (Osment). At the beginning of the film we see Crowe with his wife, basking one evening in the success of his career achievements as things turn dark and he is confronted by former child patient Vincent (Donnie Wahlberg). After hearing about how afraid and tortured Vincent is and how Dr. Crowe failed to listen or help him, he is shot in the mid-section. After a cut to black and a year time jump, he is shown in a new phase of his life. His wife ignores him, having moved on from the trauma of the incident. He takes on the case of Cole Sear, a young boy who has eerily similar acute anxiety and mood disorders as Vincent.
The script for The Sixth Sense was strong, grounding supernatural elements around well rounded characters and storylines. Shyamalan hit gold with Haley Joel Osment as his Cole Sear, getting out of him equal levels of fear/anxiety and sweetness that makes the audience root for a boy whose isolation in seeing/interacting with the spirit world can’t be more nuanced. The amount of dialogue and scene carrying the young man has to do is substantial, and he does so in a tremendous fashion. The casting of Bruce Willis as Dr. Malcom Crowe brought a heavy dose of sincerity to the role and film, as well as a few smirks and antics of humor to dash levity into a dark tale. Toni Collette as Cole’s mother Lynn shines as well, shifting between the stern discipline needed to be a single mother to a troubled boy and vulnerable enough for an empathetic catharsis in the film’s climax. This trio was a great example of script, direction, and acting matching perfectly to great results. The Academy Awards agreed, rewarding Osment and Collette with acting nominations and Shyamalan for Direction, Original Screenplay, and Best Picture itself.
The retrospective view of The Sixth Sense reinforces the film’s themes and symbolism. Knowing that Dr. Crowe is dead after his opening-scene encounter with his former patient Vincent adds a whole new layer to his actions in the film and his interactions with Cole, the boy who sees ghosts. Osment plays Cole as fear quiet, reserved, and fearful early in the film. Encountering a child psychologist who doesn’t know he is dead would be hard for anyone to understand, but their warm conversations softens Cole up until he comes to the realization his purpose for seeing ghosts may be to help them. This occurs in the third act when young girl Kyra (Mischa Barton) spooks the boy in his “safe space” tent, but when he travels to her funeral he delivers a tape to her Dad which exposes that her step mother was poisoning her.
Shyamalan also got great work from his crew, highlighted by cinematographer Tak Fujimoto and musical composer James Newton Howard. Fujimoto brought his veteran skills behind the lens from The Silence of the Lambs, another hit thriller from the ’90s. His framing and compositions bring lighting contrast to The Sixth Sense that grounds the main characters in a dark realism with dashes of elevated surrealism of the supernatural. Images of Cole seeing ghosts widen his eyes happen in his house, at school, and in public highlighting that his fears go everywhere with him. The James Newton Howard score chills the air with a moody vibe, with an iconic leitmotif playing whenever Cole is afraid seeing a ghost. He would go on to collaborate with Shyamalan on many films in his career.
Shyamalan’s has been a curious career. He has clear love and adoration for film makers Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg. Often times he has been able to excite and dazzle audiences with suspense and well-crafted drama. Some say The Sixth Sense was his peak, but his follow-up films Unbreakable (2000) and Signs (2002) follow similar beats to The Sixth Sense. His films often dabble in domestic drama, including a third act “twist” or surprise ending with varying success. His stretch of films The Happening, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and After Earth serve as outliers to the quality and design of suspense-thrillers audience became accustom to. It was with his 2015 horror film The Visit that he was seen returning to form, which lead to sequels in his “Unbreakable universe” Split and Glass. Both who extended his writing directing skills to deconstruct superhero myths tied into the human condition. His more recent films Old, Knock at the Cabin, and Trap continue his fascination with thrilling and scaring audience, echoing back to his The Sixth Sense roots.
Looking back, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense is an example of lightning in a bottle: filmmakers pairing perfectly a script with actors and crew to create a suspense film that exploded into the cultural zeitgeist of 1999. Haley Joel Osment gave one of the best child performances I have ever seen in The Sixth Sense, and his scene work with Willis and Collette is exceptional. Not only is the film one of that year’s best, it’s also a skeleton key to the evolution of one of new Hollywood’s unique voices. Shyamalan may not have a perfect track record as a director, but his ambition and ability to direct actors and tell compelling Philadelphia-based stories is a valued asset for modern suspense-thriller film making. The Sixth Sense wrapped the supernatural elements of a boy who sees ghosts around the core of disconnect between parents and children needing to connect.
