I see dead people.
Cast, Crew, and Other Info:
Director.Writer: M. Night Shyamalan
Features: Bruce Willis…Malcolm Crowe
Haley Joel Osment…Cole Sear
Toni Collette…Lynn Sear
Olivia Williams…Anna Crowe
Micha Barton…Barfy Girl (okay, actually credited as “Kyra Collins”).
Available at Amazon.com and Amazon. ca
Premise:
After the suicide of a patient he could not help, a psychiatrist counsels a troubled boy who claims he sees visions of dead people.
High Points:
1. The ending. For once, the Shyamalan premise works in its entirety. I had the good fortune to see this with a friend when it first came out, before I’d heard anything about it, and long before the expectation that every Shyamalan film will have some twist. We both should have seen it coming (I’ve guessed more difficult solutions to mysteries), and neither of us did. I saw it soon after with my wife; she had the same reaction. More importantly, the film holds up to repeated viewings, even after (or if) you know where it is going.
2. “Silence, Village Idiot!”
Low Point:
The pacing drags in places.
The Scores:
Originality: 4/6 This premise has been used before, though Sixth Sense uses it well.
Effects: 5/6.
Story: 6/6:
Acting: 5/6: .
Production: 6/6
Emotional Response: 6/6
Overall: 6/6.
In total, The Sixth Sense receives 38/42.
Halloween Countdown to date
- October 1: Witchcraft
Through The Ages - October 2: The Evil
Dead - October 3: Evil Dead
2: Dead By Dawn - October 4: Army of
Darkness - October 5: Ghostbusters
- October 6: Ghostbusters 2
- October 7: The Little
Shop of Horrors (1960) - October 8: The
Terror - October 9: The
Shining - October 10: Throne of
Blood - October 11: Ringu
- October 12: The Ring
No detailed breakdown
What happened to the more detailed reviews? :(
Re: No detailed breakdown
Different authors have different styles. Tomorrow’s
review will be one of the longer ones.
Re: No detailed breakdown
Glad to know people read them. Yeah, this is by far the shortest of my reviews for our Halloween countdown.
Originality
I’m interested in knowing where it has been used previously. Can you give specifics?
Re: Originality, and spoileresque stuff
I cannot recall the title of the story; I read it more than 20 years ago. It’s one example of what is called (when used well, as it is in The Sixth Sense) “concealed reality,” and when it is used poorly, called (at least by the Turkey City Lexicon) a “Jar of Tang.” If you attended writers’ workshops prior to the release of Sixth Sense, it was commonplace for someone to use a variation of this twist(as were “Brain in a Jar” stories before The Matrix popularized the premise). Heck, a play I workshopped with teens in the 90s began with a monologue that had the same twist. Typically, however, we’re getting a narrative perspective that only truly makes sense when we learn that the person narrating shares Bruce Willis’s circumstances in Sixth Sense. This film had him interacting with another character. There is an ep of M.A.S.H wherein Klinger interacts with a soldier in this situation (Klinger is injured, and for some reason can see/speak with him), but we figure it out fairly quickly; only the soldier and Klinger remain in the dark for long.
In the end, I think our rating system over-values originality, though SF/fantasy fans do prize it.
Re: Originality
There’s a great Lovecraft story told from the point of view of a character in a similar situation.
Re: Originality
It had me from the beginning to end
I figured it out when the ring hit the floor in the last minute. Had me going
the entire time.
Saw it close to the release time with my wife and some of my family. My
brother claimed he saw it but it was such a findmuck I would have thought
his personality wouldn’t have let him keep his mouth shut.
I love the movie. Haley Joel did a wonderful job and it was an emotional
roller coaster.