411mania.com: Movies - 31 Years, 31 Screams:The Sixth Sense

So, due to the fact that I'm having account problems with Photobucket and the fact that I didn't know whether midnight on the 23rd meant it posted between the 22nd and 23rd or the 23rd and 24th, it appears I'm a little behind. No worries. I'm on it.

M. Night Shyamalan has become a much-maligned writer/director in recent years. Some of it is deserved. The truth is he does come across as arrogant and in love with his own workprints. Then again, so do Matt Stone and Trey Parker. I shudder to think what Orson Welles' reputation might have been had TMZ.com been around in the 1940s. The (at best) uneven Lady in the Water only served to confirm to critics that Shyamalan was nothing more than a temperamental hack whose moment in the spotlight was over.

However, other criticisms, such as Shyamalan being a horrible screenwriter and director just come off as bitter and fanboyish. "Too many twist endings" is not a valid criticism. After all, the reputations of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone were practically built on twists. Criticisms of the science and motivations in Signs don't hold much water either (no pun intended), especially when you consider the entire premise of an alien invasion in *any* movie is flawed to begin with.

But back in 1999, Shyamalan could do no wrong. He was considered a horror genius for reviving the classic 1940s horror formula of using the unseen to frighten audiences out of their wits. The twist ending was merely something that got people talking. The fact that so many people were fooled owes itself to good storytelling on Shyamalan's part. Honestly, I guessed it from the trailer months before the film even hit theatres, so part of it *must* have been the director's slight of hand.

Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a prominent child psychiatrist. He was even given a plaque by the city, honoring his accomplishments. When he and his wife (Olivia Williams) return home from the ceremony, they find Vincent (Donnie Wahlberg), one of Malcolm's patients, standing in his underwear in their bathroom. Vincent is dangerously disturbed to the point of hallucination.

Vincent tells Malcolm, "I don't want to be afraid anymore." Malcolm tries to calm Vincent down, but Vincent is upset that Malcolm has been unable to stop the hallucinations in their therapy sessions. Vincent pulls a gun and shoots Malcolm in the stomach before ending his own life.

Six months later, we see Malcolm sitting on a park bench waiting for another young patient, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment). Malcolm is a shell of his former self. Ever since the shooting, he and his wife have been distant from one another, and his practice is in ruins.

Cole is a shy young boy whose major problem seems to be fitting in. He even has a hard time connecting with his own mother (Toni Collette). As Malcolm probes deeper into Cole's problems, he finds out something that chills his heart – Cole is suffering from the same hallucinations that Vincent was being treated for. "I see dead people," Cole famously tells him.

Malcolm vows not to fail Cole as he failed Vincent. He begins with talk therapy, of course, thinking that Cole is just confused and needs to sort things out. As he delves deeper, though, he realizes that Cole may not be hallucinating after all. He goes back and listens to his tapes of the interviews with Vincent and discovers something very strange – not only did Vincent talk to ghosts, but they apparently answered him back!

Malcolm, now a believer, tells Cole that he thinks the ghosts are trying to tell him something, not scare him. He reasons that they must be stuck her for a purpose, something that didn't get solved when they were alive. That resolved, Cole begins to listen to the little girl ("The O.C.'s" Mischa Barton) who haunts him outside of his tent. She actually helps him solve her own murder at the hands of her mother (a case of Munchausen Syndrome by proxy).

Cole, now feeling a sense of balance and purpose in his life, begins to feel happier. He's no longer feeling haunted by the ghosts he sees. In fact, he now realizes he's here to help them.

For reasons obvious to those who have seen the film, I won't go any further with the details. I can say that Shyamalan shows all of the touches of storytelling mastery that would garner him a following in the first place. These range from the visual – Cole has a single white tuft of hair, something that is never really expounded on in the narrative but is indicative of someone who has suffered severe trauma; the color red always symbolizes the supernatural from the ruby door knob in the Crowe's home to the buttons on Malcolm's tape recorder.

Not everyone saw greatness here, though. The spec script by Shyamalan was approved by a Disney agent who was so enthusiastic that he approved it without discussing it with his superiors. The agent was eventually fired, and Disney dumped the project, which was unfortunate for that little Mickey Mouse operation because it became one of the top grossing films of all time.

The 411: A startling major film debut from Shyamalan that (along with the Blair Witch Project) marked a return to the unseen, implied horrors in the world rather than blood and gore. The much-hyped twist ending is what people remember, but Shyamalan had turned in a fine ghost story long before the denoument. A

Post Comment | Email J.D. Dunn | View J.D. Dunn's 411 Profile

Please add your comment below.

If you are registered, you can login and post under your registered name. If not, you can post as a guest or register.

* Please note that 411 moderates all comments. Your comment will show up on the site after it has been approved by an editor.

Name :

Comment :

Remaining Characters :

2800