M. Night Shyamalan: Ranking His Films From Worst To Best

The Sixth Sense (1999)

CORRECT Sixth Sense The beauty of the twist at the end of The Sixth Sense was that, unlike The Village, it made you want to watch it again. You wanted to go back and see if you could spot errors, find clues, discover other mysteries. It was an answer that opened the door for more questions, and the film was good enough that you wanted to dive in again and explore more of it. Again dealing with a fractured family, The Sixth Sense€™s now familiar premise deals with a young boy who thinks he€™s sees ghosts (spoiler: he does) and the psychologist (Bruce Willis) determined to help him. It€™s an original ghost story in both its method and its viewpoint; rarely do we get adult ghost stories which focus so heavily on the perspective of the ghost (albeit unknowingly). The entire film is coated in a sort of thick coldness. We see relationships that want to happen but don€™t, families that care for each other but can€™t express it correctly. It€™s a world which, in many ways, seems to already be dead. Shyamalan€™s script is crisp and frightening, and his direction summons up suspense in a number of different ways, whether through jump-scares, slow builds, or nothing more than music and mood. We watch the entire film on edge, aware all along that something isn€™t quite right. When we finally learn what it is, we only want more.
Contributor
Contributor

David Braga lives in Boston, MA, where he watches movies, football, and enjoys a healthy amount of beer. It's a tough life, but someone has to live it.