Screw "The Sixth Sense"

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 2002)

Poor old M. Night Shyamalan. He happens to make a movie ("The Sixth Sense") that does amazing business based essentially on a goofy plot twist, & now, I guess, he's "the plot twist guy" for the rest of his life. Somebody has to be "the new Hitchcock," so I guess it's him. He's not allowed to be "just" a talented filmmaker any more. Orson Welles spent his whole life trying to "live down" "Citizen Kane"; hope the same's not in store for M. Night.

M. Night makes "spiritual thrillers." He did it before "The Sixth Sense," he's done it since, & I imagine he'll go on doing it. If his name were just Fred Smith & if there hadn't been "Sixth Sense," I imagine he'd be seen as a promising indie director at this point, with critical appreciation for his loyalty to the southeastern Pennsylvania region. But dammit, thanks to "Sixth Sense" he's doomed to fine-toothed critical scrutiny & high audience expectations. But he can't do "Sixth Sense" again--even if he wanted to---it wouldn't work. We should just let him do the work he wants to do & take it on that basis.

This is a hard movie to discuss without constantly veering near Spoiler territory. "Spoilers" only apply to people who haven't seen the movie yet, so for such people who may be reading this, I'll say this: The "extraterrestrial" aspects really aren't the point. This isn't like an "X-files" episode, or the movie of same. The point is how the character s REACT TO what they think they're experiencing. A key scene is when Mel Gibson's son is reading the book about aliens. We see the book with its illustrations of (by now) "garden-variety" aliens. There's a reason M. Night spends so much time on that book. It's his way of saying: "I'm trying to establish a common lexicon here, I'm establishing the basis for my characters' later emotional reactions. I'm not 'breaking new ground.' This is not Sci-Fi, & it's definitely not 'X-Files.'" M. Night is keenly aware of all the great trashy old 1950s flicks most of which just relied on the "alien conventions" of the time. (He even has a character make a reference to "The War of the Worlds.") So whatever folks see in this flick that may seem "derivative" or "disappointing" or whatever, remember, M. Night isn't trying to be Spielberg or Lucas. He wants to know what YOU would do in such a situation; face it, wouldn't most of us be scared crapless if just a "regular" human intruder were trying to get inside? Imagine if it were something beyond that; the scenes where Gibson et al. grapple with this are by far the best in the flick. If anything, I wish far more had been done with that aspect of it. I wish there'd been a lot more "build-up," a lot more "bump in the night" stuff. (The "Blair Witch" flick showed how far one could go with ONLY "bump in the night" stuff.) The cleverly edited trailer certainly suggested it'd be that sort of flick. M. Night, were he so inclined, could make a a career of scaring the bejabbers out of us, he must be the best "point-of-view" director currently working. (It used to be Walter Hill, as in "What ever happened to...") There are moments in this movie that are just electrifying in terms of suspense. He can make us squirm when he wants to. But evidently he has "bigger fish to fry."

That, I must confess, is where he starts to lose me. He's hugely interested in "faith" in general, & I'm not. But that's just a personal thing with yours truly: I couldn't care less what people think, believe or say; I only care what people do. I know Gibson's Catholic in his personal life & at first I thought he was playing a Catholic priest but then "Wait, he's married with kids....." Turns out he's Episcopalian, they wear a similar uniform but with a subtle collar difference; I hadn't known they were also called "Father." So he's lost his faith, yadda yadda. I couldn't really "relate to" any of that, but I imagine may viewers can. The whispered conversation between Gibson & Phoenix reminded me a lot of the one in "Poltergeist" with the dwarf explaining everything.
Ultimately I found this movie oddly uninvolving. The characters should've been a lot more "pro-active." Never mind the damn baseball bat on the wall, the notion of a household in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with no guns in it is pretty farfetched, even if it's an ex-reverend's house. Too much passivity occurring. Neither Gibson nor Phoenix seemed to have a current job. We didn't see enough activity on the part of local govt. agencies--there's a LOT of that in Pennsylvania, trust me. The previous Pennsylvania film maestro, George Romero of Pittsburgh, always presented that to us in spades. M. Night may want to follow suit.
Good acting for the most part; I especially liked the gung-ho army recruiter & the paranoid book dealer (that same actor was in the "Blair Witch" sequel that was liked, apparently, by no one except yours truly). Lots of comedic moments. Maybe M Night should make comedies with scary aspects rather than melodramas with comedic moments. I for one heard a lot more laughs than gasps in the cinema.

Bottom line, it's a well-made flick & worth seeing, as was "Unbreakable," but neither of them is "Sixth Sense", nor should we expect to see another such from M. Night. He had his fluke hit (with a nod to "Carnival of Souls") & now let's let him have his career & we hope he'll still get some viewers.