The standard for the twist story genre

Rating: 10/10 (2 June 2010)

I consider this the very best twist-story I have ever seen, followed at great distance by The Others. That I am not the only one, of course, is best shown by the great spin-off, included those by the same director. And even more the fact, that none succeeded to equal, let alone surpass this movie. The movie is compelling and keeps you intrigued to the end, and the end, well, it is legendary. To me it is so brilliant, like you have seen two good movies in one. Many movies of the twist-genre, if I may call it that, do not respect the checklist for endings. And ending should wrap things up, tie up loose ends, without tearing the story we have seen so far apart (in the worst case telling the reader it was all a dream). The sixth sense does this better than any movie before or since. But before I get to that, let's start at the beginning. It started with Bruce Willis getting shot by his former patient, now a grown man still troubled by apparently non-existing phenomena. It gives the right background, since we are introduced to the main character, Bruce Willis, being a child psychologist, who has dropped the ball somewhere along the line. Or not? Was that patient mad? The rest of the story is about Bruce Willis' character seeking redemption for his failure, as he feels it, by trying to do it right next time. That chance comes with the gifted child that is showing the same problems. But before that, remember the cut? After Bruce was gunned down you see him suddenly sitting, the next fall, on a couch outside, waiting for the young boy. It struck me as lonely, and strange. Of course, in hindsight, it was all deliberately put there including the clever camera work and fall setting, as any good story should only contain things that belong there for a reason. I thought: where is the hospital, where is the wife? Why is the atmosphere so lonely, and deserted? Well we know now why, but I did not then, so this was one question, one unsolved delayed bit of information â€“ always a good thing to keep the reader, or watcher, hooked. Also his contact with his wife: distant, short visits, monologues rather than discussions. I thought they are in a fight, but about what? The end provided the explanation: they were not in a fight, but she could not see him, and she looked sad since she was mourning about her dead husband. A very smart way of twisting a story. It is very hard to do, especially since the whole movie you have seen stays intact, even after the surprise. All you saw happened, only from a different perspective. Just when I started to think the start was too weird, I was intrigued just in time by the ghosts that came along with the little boy Bruce had as a patient. I thought it would end up like Poltergeist, the spirits entering the real world, Bruce having to sacrifice himself, redemption, end. But the real horror came from the people themselves, with of course the climax the video of the dead girl, showing she was poisoned by her stepmother. A very different approach and hard to do, but this movie succeeded in being scary without showing the obvious spooks alone, but with staying in the real world. Take 'The Others', for instance, that movie had the advantage of the claustrophobic effect you automatically get when you choose an isolated place, like the estate they were on. The Sixth Sense only had the open world, a city, as we know it, and the heroes could walk anywhere. Not easy to create a scary atmosphere, there, since the characters could just go away when things got scared, right? But they couldn't , since the ghost where all over the place, too. All the questions I had during the movie were all perfectly wrapped up in the end. I thought: why would Bruce find out now, not earlier or later, he was dead? Well, he had come full circle, he helped the boy where he could not help a boy in the past. If he would let go now, his wife could move on and she was ready, having a new boyfriend. The time was right. The boy, he came full circle too: by listening to the ghosts, he would find out he was no freak since they did exist. They were there and by listening to them he could be of use to the people that they left behind. Also his mother understood her son was just gifted and not a freak, by the somewhat over emotional scene with him telling about her dead mother showing up at some high school event, something he could obviously not have known. It is extremely hard to wrap all things up this perfect, and the reason this movie does it nevertheless, is because it showed a carefully constructed story which was possible to interpret in two ways all the time. By diverting me to the ghosts themselves, I totally forgot to bother about what was going on with Bruce Willis' character himself and his wife, and why it did not fit. It stayed in the back of my head, but the ghosts were even more dominant. Brilliant, you can only do this once. Furthermore I can add the acting is very good, and the camera-work also, especially the scene with the stepmother. So all the way to the end, the movie is surprising, intriguing and scary. It left the Poltergeist or Exorcist approach and by staying in the real world it made the ghosts even more scary, or exciting if that is the word. The end itself is the biggest surprise any movie has shown, and manages yet to leave all you saw intact, even adding a depth to the story. Perfect. A perfect story, made into a perfect movie. Ten stars.