All senses felt...

Rating: 9/10 (17 March 2018)

This film was a remarkable way to end the millennium and provided sight to what was on the horizon for director M. Night Shyamalan. As a fan of psychological horror films that provide an unforeseen twist at the end, The Sixth Sense provided all the feels that I look for in this type of script. The first 5 minutes or so of this movie gave a pivotal scene where Malcolm was wounded by a former psychologist patient that won't have much importance on the film until we're fast approaching the credits. Soon after Malcolm is shot we meet eight year old Cole who is played by Haley Joel Osment as a new patient to Dr. Malcolm Crowe we can tell Cole is different than other children his age. We see Cole walk fast through the streets of Philadelphia straight into a quiet church where Malcolm observes then follows Cole for their first scene together. At this time no one is imagining that we are seeing Bruce Willis as a ghost, but as a human having an introduction to a new patient.
As we move further into the film we really start to see where the theme was headed not only for the film, but also a number of characters. In my opinion the theme was certainly showcasing unfinished business or righting a wrong. We can see that Malcolm really has remorse and heartache where he couldn't help save his former patient Vincent Gray and I felt that taking on new patient Cole was a way to heal that pain. Once Cole reveals that he can see the dead walking around not knowing they're dead, we start to see new images of characters in limbo with unfinished business where Cole can be the messenger if he has the courage.
Once we see what Cole has the capability of, we start to see the heartache but also the gift where he can help the dead. Cole was able to help a little girl who ultimately was murdered by her mother through poisoning and was found out with Cole's assistance of delivering a VHS tape to the young girl's father. This scene was heartbreaking and really made you feel pain when it focused on the motif with the color red, but his scene was also very joyous when this woman was found out for an unexplained act. This scene showed me that Cole was a helper with his gift and we soon realized for the previous hour that he was also helping a ghost named Malcolm.
I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys psychological films with a major twist at the end such as another film by M. Night Shyamalan Unbreakable. In closing this film is still one of my favorites even after being released almost 19 years ago and I certainly hope they have a 20th anniversary showing at my local theater.