He enjoyed working on 12 Monkeys and Beloved not only because they were great experiences, but also because he got to sleep in his own bed. Over at the Greater Philadelphia Marketing and Tourism Corp., president Meryl Levitz is pondering ways to harness the momentum of The Sixth Sense. But The Sixth Sense isn't like Home Alone 2, in that it celebrates a recognizable place like Fifth Avenue. Home Alone sells a consumer experience in New York. The Sixth Sense sells a mood.
Image is a slippery thing, a city's image even more so.
Then for a brief moment in the '90s, the city was the backdrop to the cruel-virus movies Philadelphia and 12 Monkeys. One might argue that The Sixth Sense is like Beloved, an evocative picture of a city haunted by the dead. Then again, the transcendent ending of Shyamalan's film could permanently alter the city's typecasting. Consider an event in the summer of 1977 that did a lot to reverse New York's precipitously declining fortunes. On top of double-digit inflation and a fiscal crisis, the city endured a wilting heat wave, a blackout, and a chilling serial killer who called himself Son of Sam.