10 Horror Movie Characters Who Didn't Know They Were The Victim
9. Malcolm Crowe - The Sixth Sense
There's perhaps no greater or more iconic instance of a character who doesn't realise they're the victim of a horrible death than The Sixth Sense's protagonist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis).
At the start of the film, Malcolm returns home with his wife Anna (Olivia Williams) only to be confronted by a disturbed former patient, Vincent Grey (Donnie Wahlberg), who has broken into their home.
Vincent angrily accuses Malcolm of failing him during his treatments as a child, before shooting Malcolm and then himself.
We then jump forward months later, where Malcolm has seemingly recovered from his injuries and goes about treating his new patient, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment).
Except, of course, the jaw-dropping twist at film's end is that Malcolm never survived being shot by Vincent, and has in fact been dead the entire time he's been working with Cole.
When Cole told Malcolm that he could see dead people, he was speaking in far more direct terms than Malcolm ever realised.
Malcolm's wife appears distant throughout the film because she literally can't see him, though Malcolm at least manages to make peace with her and "move on" at the end.
M. Night Shyamalan pulled this twist off so damn well that he basically ruined it for everybody else, ensuring audiences are now totally savvy to any similar narrative chicanery.