A clever, gore-free horror thriller

Rating: 9/10 (16 June 2008)

Though many believe it to be true, The Sixth Sense is not M. Night Shyamalan's directorial debut (in fact, it's his third movie), but that myth holds up well because no one knew about him before this film. Not his proper first, then, but the first significant one, and deservedly so.
Influenced by TV shows like Tales of the Unexpected and The Twilight Zone, Shyamalan crafts a slow-burning, low-key thriller that grabs the viewer right from the beginning: psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is enjoying an evening at home with his wife when he's suddenly attacked by a former patient (Donnie Wahlberg). Months after this shocking prologue, Malcolm's marriage is in jeopardy and he needs some kind of redemption for what he believes to be a professional failure. He finds that redemption in the shape of Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a young boy with a terrifying psychic gift, best described by the kid himself: "I see dead people!".
That line has been aped countless times since the movie's release, as has the now legendary twist ending, which has become a Shyamalan trademark. But knowing about the twist, or guessing what it is at an early stage of the viewing, is beside the point: it isn't the ending itself that matters, but the build-up. Consider other famous "twist" movies, like The Crying Game, Psycho, The Usual Suspects or Fight Club: the revelations at the end or halfway through those features are brilliant, no doubt, but if the overall film is bad it will diminish the epilogue's impact, no matter how smart the latter is.
As such, when watching The Sixth Sense, the attention shouldn't go to the climax, but to everything that precedes it: how Shyamalan creates tension with very few camera movements, most of the creeps coming from James Newton Howard's score; how the story evolves slowly and naturally, enabling us to care for the characters and their inner struggles; how the subdued Willis and the creepy Osment constitute one of cinema's best on-screen duos, with able support from Wahlberg, Toni Collette and others (Mischa Barton's cameo is one of the scariest things of the '90s).
The trick is in the smaller details, and that's what makes The Sixth Sense an immensely satisfying experience. Instead of gore and monsters, Shyamalan uses psychology and subtle chills to construct a memorably unsettling atmosphere, adding emotion on top. And, of course, the unsurpassed ending.