You already know that second when a film doesn’t simply scare you however quietly rearranges the best way you see the whole lot afterward? Effectively, that’s The Sixth Sense. When it was launched within the late summer time of 1999, M. Evening Shyamalan’s supernatural thriller was a cultural occasion, a collective gasp, and one of many final occasions an viewers might stroll right into a theater unspoiled, unaware that they have been about to witness one of many best twist endings in trendy cinema.
Even now, over twenty years later, its legacy lingers like a ghost within the nook of the room ready for somebody to whisper, “I see dead people.” However how did all of it occur? How did a just about unknown filmmaker and an growing old motion star in want of a profession reset come collectively to create a genre-defining masterpiece that modified the face of Hollywood horror? At present, let’s revisit the making, the thriller, and the magic of The Sixth Sense.
Each nice horror story begins with a query. For M. Evening Shyamalan, that query got here from one thing eerily strange, a funeral. In interviews over time, Shyamalan has recalled attending a wake as a toddler and seeing a boy sitting alone, speaking softly to somebody who wasn’t there. The thought of a kid seeing what adults couldn’t haunted him for years. Ultimately, it grew to become the muse of The Sixth Sense. However the film didn’t arrive absolutely shaped because the quiet, emotional ghost story we all know at the moment. Early drafts of the script leaned extra towards a conventional thriller, even a detective story. In a single model, the Bruce Willis character wasn’t a toddler psychologist however a criminal offense scene photographer investigating a collection of murders. Solely progressively did Shyamalan strip the idea right down to its essence: a narrative about communication, grief, and unfinished enterprise between the residing and the useless.
When you concentrate on it, The Sixth Sense isn’t actually about ghosts in any respect. It’s about loneliness and the issues we don’t say. Shyamalan, who grew up loving E.T. and The Exorcist in equal measure, wished to make a supernatural movie that carried Spielberg’s coronary heart and Friedkin’s dread in the identical breath. When he lastly accomplished the script, Shyamalan hooked up some daring situations: the studio must purchase it for at the least $1 million, and he must direct it himself.
Nonetheless, he believed within the story. And one government at Disney, David Vogel, believed in him. Vogel learn the script, was blown away, and, with out consulting his superiors, paid $2.25 million for the rights, granting Shyamalan full management. It was the form of gutsy transfer that both makes a profession or ends one. In Vogel’s case, it did each: Disney fired him for overstepping authority. However historical past vindicated him. But even because the challenge moved ahead, Shyamalan nervous. Casper had not too long ago been launched, and he feared audiences may be ghosted out. However the story he’d written was no pleasant ghost story.
In 1999, M. Evening Shyamalan wasn’t a model title. He was simply one other younger director attempting to get observed in a crowded studio system. However The Sixth Sense would change that in a single day. Earlier than the film, he was a filmmaker with potential; after it, he was being known as “the next Spielberg.” He would go on to direct Unbreakable, Indicators, and The Village, carving a distinct segment for emotional, twist-driven storytelling. However earlier than The Sixth Sense, there was uncertainty. And that uncertainty mirrored the opposite key participant within the story: Bruce Willis.
By the late ’90s, Bruce Willis was nonetheless a star, however not the form of star he as soon as was. After Die Laborious, Pulp Fiction, The Fifth Factor, and Armageddon, his title assured a sure form of film: explosions, sarcasm, swagger. What it didn’t assure anymore was vary. Critics had typecast him as an motion man. The delicate, susceptible aspect he’d proven early in his profession on Moonlighting had all however vanished behind smirks and smokescreens.
Then, destiny, even perhaps karma, stepped in. Willis had been entangled in a authorized dispute over a failed Disney challenge known as Broadway Brawler, which shut down mid-production. To make amends, he signed a three-picture cope with Disney to finish different initiatives as a substitute. A kind of simply occurred to be The Sixth Sense. Willis approached the position of Malcolm Crowe with quiet restraint, shedding his traditional bravado. His efficiency is inconspicuous, mournful, and deeply human, simply what the movie wanted. He grew to become the emotional anchor in Shyamalan’s ghost story, grounding the movie’s supernatural pressure in one thing actual and sorrowful. For each Shyamalan and Willis, The Sixth Sense wasn’t simply one other gig. It was a rebirth. For one, it was the start of a profession; for the opposite, a reinvention.
Filming started in Philadelphia in September 1998 and lasted till November of that yr. Shyamalan’s house metropolis, a location that may develop into a recurring character in practically all his future works. The manufacturing was quiet, intimate, and intentionally paced, very similar to the movie itself. This wasn’t a large studio tentpole with CGI monsters; it was a low-key, moody drama about invisible ache and whispered fears.
The casting course of, nonetheless, was essential. For the position of Cole Sear, a number of younger actors have been auditioned, together with a then-unknown Michael Cera. However the second Haley Joel Osment walked in, Shyamalan knew. His audition wasn’t about concern or tears, however about empathy. Osment reportedly walked into the room, shook Shyamalan’s hand, and stated, “I read your script three times last night.” That one line of honesty sealed it. Osment’s efficiency grew to become the emotional spine of the film, and it earned him an Academy Award nomination at simply 11 years outdated. That well-known line, “I see dead people”, wouldn’t solely outline his profession but additionally enter the pop-culture lexicon perpetually.
Behind the digital camera, Shyamalan’s course emphasised environment over exposition. He used lengthy takes, nonetheless framing, and muted colours to create unease with out counting on typical horror methods. Pink objects have been used symbolically all through as refined warnings of supernatural interference. The palette, in any other case drained and pale, made these colours really feel like alarms for the viewer’s unconscious. Even the costume design grounded the world in sorrow and restraint. Each element mattered.
Then there’s the “cold breath” impact, which is the refined chill that accompanies a ghost’s presence. At present, a VFX crew would merely add digital vapor. However Shyamalan wished authenticity. So the crew bodily chilled the set utilizing industrial freezers, surrounding the actors with actual chilly air till their breath naturally fogged on digital camera. The actors have been actually shivering by these moments. One of many movie’s most emotional scenes, Cole lastly confessing his secret to his mom within the automotive, practically fell aside throughout capturing. It was raining, the actors have been exhausted, and the emotional stakes have been excessive. Toni Collette has stated it was one of many hardest scenes of her profession, breaking down a number of occasions earlier than they nailed the take that made it into the movie. The result’s uncooked, actual, and devastating, a second that transforms the film from supernatural thriller into full-blown tragedy. Shyamalan even seems briefly on display as Dr. Hill, a skeptical doctor who treats Cole after an accident. He later admitted he hated the expertise and vowed to keep away from future cameos. I believe it’s protected to say he’s damaged that rule a number of occasions.
The Sixth Sense opened on August 6, 1999. It wasn’t marketed as a blockbuster; it was positioned as a wise, chilling thriller. And but, audiences responded in droves. The movie opened to $26.6 million, breaking August field workplace data and dominating the charts for six straight weeks, and stayed within the high 10 Field Workplace for fifteen weeks! It in the end grossed $293 million within the U.S. and $672 million worldwide, second solely to The Phantom Menace that yr. For a time, the highest-grossing supernatural movie in historical past.
Critics have been simply as shocked. Roger Ebert praised its “deliberate, thoughtful pace,” calling it “a film about death, not a film of death.” Audiences, in the meantime, couldn’t cease speaking concerning the twist. Within the pre-social-media period, phrase of mouth was the whole lot, and the collective silence in theaters when the ending was revealed grew to become a shared cultural expertise. Folks went again to see it once more, keen to identify the clues they’d missed the primary time.
It was nominated for six Academy Awards, together with Finest Image, Finest Director, Finest Unique Screenplay, Finest Supporting Actor (Osment), Finest Supporting Actress (Collette), and Finest Modifying. It didn’t win any, however its nominations alone have been outstanding for a movie within the horror/supernatural style. The film’s house video launch grew to become one other milestone. In 2000, The Sixth Sense was the top-selling DVD of the yr, transferring hundreds of thousands of copies and cementing its place in house libraries worldwide. Lengthy earlier than Netflix algorithms or YouTube rewatches, individuals obsessed over pausing scenes, re-analyzing clues, and discovering how seamlessly the twist had been hiding in plain sight.
M. Evening Shyamalan grew to become an in a single day sensation. Studio executives hailed him as the brand new grasp of suspense, and the media shortly branded him “the next Spielberg.” His follow-up movies Unbreakable and Indicators continued his streak of emotionally charged thrillers. By the mid-2000s, Shyamalan’s title had develop into synonymous with “the twist.” Each new launch, comparable to The Village, Girl within the Water, The Occurring, have been marketed round that gimmick. And but, The Sixth Sense stays his definitive assertion. Each movie since, irrespective of the style, lives in its shadow. It’s his curse, but additionally his anchor.
For Bruce Willis, the movie was equally transformative. It redefined his vary and reminded audiences that he may very well be quiet and susceptible, not simply cocky or cool. Some even name Malcolm Crowe his most full efficiency: understated, human, and genuinely transferring. And for horror as a style, The Sixth Sense modified the whole lot. Earlier than it, the late ’90s have been dominated by slashers and meta-horror: Scream, I Know What You Did Final Summer season, and City Legend, to call a couple of. After The Sixth Sense, studios rediscovered the facility of quiet terror. Movies like The Others, The Ring, and The Orphanage took cues from their temper, their pacing, and their emphasis on emotional depth over bloodshed.
It additionally reintroduced mainstream audiences to the concept horror may very well be prestigious. That you may win Oscars and field workplace with out resorting to gore or gimmicks. The movie’s PG-13 ranking proved you didn’t want excessive violence to disturb individuals, simply fact, unhappiness, and environment.
When October rolls round and the world decorates itself in shadows and fog, The Sixth Sense feels proper at house. It’s not Halloween within the jack-o’-lantern sense however Halloween within the existential sense. The movie is concerning the skinny line between the residing and the useless, and the ache that connects them.
What makes it good for the season is its restraint. It doesn’t soar out and scream “boo.” It sits subsequent to you quietly, like a ghost on the sting of your mattress, ready so that you can discover it. It’s a film about grief disguised as a horror movie, which in some ways is probably the most haunting form of story there’s. Watching it now, the actual terror isn’t demise, it’s being unseen. And that’s what makes The Sixth Sense such a masterpiece. It makes use of the supernatural to discover probably the most human concern of all: isolation.
Greater than twenty years later, it stays the crown jewel of turn-of-the-century cinema. It’s a ghost story that makes you cry, a horror movie that ends with peace as a substitute of panic. It’s the uncommon film that finds magnificence in demise and dignity in concern. It launched M. Evening Shyamalan into the stratosphere, gave Bruce Willis a second act, and reminded audiences that horror may very well be elegant.
Sure, the twist is unforgettable. However the actual secret of The Sixth Sense isn’t the reveal, however the realization that we’re all haunted by one thing. And perhaps, simply perhaps, if we might pay attention carefully sufficient, we’d discover that the ghosts aren’t right here to scare us. They’re simply attempting to say goodbye.
So this Halloween, if you wish to revisit a movie that also chills, nonetheless strikes, and nonetheless makes your coronary heart cease proper earlier than it breaks, dim the lights, flip off your cellphone, and press play on The Sixth Sense. However don’t say I didn’t warn you. Some films by no means actually depart you. They only… keep
