The Sixth Sense (1999)
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 134
Fresh: 114 | Rotten: 20
M Night Shayamalan's The Sixth Sense is a twisty ghost story with all the style of a classical Hollywood picture, but all the chills of a modern horror flick.
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 7
M Night Shayamalan's The Sixth Sense is a twisty ghost story with all the style of a classical Hollywood picture, but all the chills of a modern horror flick.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 950,316
My Rating
Movie Info
In this tense tale of psychological terror, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a child psychologist whose new patient has a problem far outside his usual area of expertise. Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) is six-years-old and claims to see the spirits of dead people all around him. It seems that Cole has psychic powers and can channel the ghosts of those who were troubled. Cole doesn't understand his powers, and he has little control over them; he's constantly terrified by what he sees, and Dr.
Cast
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Bruce Willis
Dr. Malcolm Crowe -
Haley Joel Osment
Cole Sear -
Toni Collette
Lynn Sear -
Olivia Williams
Anna Crowe -
Donnie Wahlberg
Vincent Gray -
Glenn Fitzgerald
Sean -
Mischa Barton
Kyra Collins -
Trevor Morgan
Tommy Tammisimo -
Bruce Norris
Stanley Cunningham -
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Samia Shoaib
Young Woman Buying Ring
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All Critics (134) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (120) | Rotten (21) | DVD (41)
A delicate, emotionally attentive, but very scary ghost story.
I was not only surprised by the film's final twist, I wasn't even looking for one. I just thought I was watching a bad movie. The end doesn't quite redeem it, but it makes you think about what you've seen. That's a saving grace of some sort.
Shyamalan's script is a clever construct, but also contains a great deal of sensitivity to the plight of the "different" child.
M. Night Shyamalan neutralizes Willis's star presence with impressive plotting that's a fine excuse for the powerful atmosphere.
An effectively understated and moodily engrossing ghost film with a surprisingly satisfying jolt at the end.
A poignant study of the searing pain caused by loss, this all-too-human horror film provokes tears as well as fears.
Top CriticLike Kieslowski and others, Shyamalan knows that what makes for lousy metaphysics can make for powerful metaphor, and in the end he creates a deeply, surprisingly affecting film out of a little bit of smoke and brimstone.
Like The Exorcist, this isn't really a gore-spattered shocker, more a slow-burning, subconscious-botherer.
Osment is excellent, as is Bruce Willis, as a melancholy child psychologist scarred by his failure with a similarly haunted youth, and Toni Collette, as the boy's fiercely loyal mother.
Constantly on the brink of explanation, The Sixth Sense in fact derives most of its fascination from explaining next to nothing.
Great, but sometimes scarier than R-rated horror.
An excellent premiere for new director M. Night Shyamalan as he packs a punch with a great story, excellent directing, a great cast, great performances, and a surprise ending that will leave you breathless for days on end.
Classy, creepy and cunnningly constructed, Shyamalan's film offers melacholy pleasures and some genuinely effective scares. A quality Hollywood offering and a massive hit.
Osment's performance is positively chilling, more marvelous and accomplished every time you watch this film.
This film proved that a supernatural spook show, combined with solid drama, could appeal to a broad, mainstream audience, without downplaying the horror.
A low-key triumph of mood and menace.
Mr. Willis gives a surprisingly quiet performance.
The screenplay, with its terrific scares and its amazing double-whammy at the end, is a grand achievement.
Intelligence and substance in a summer horror flick? Who'd of thought it.
Audience Reviews for The Sixth Sense
Super Reviewer
Much has been also said of this film's surprise ending and i must admit that it truly is a brilliant as a twist. There are also few genuinely effective shocks along the ride, but when compared to his filmography, films like Signs or The Village, this is a far cry from them.
Technically The Sixth Sense is assured work, but for me it has always felt a bit cold from it's heart. It is a ghost story that leaves an oddly bland aftertaste and in a story that should have bigger impact emotionally, it is a huge flaw. It actually feels as if Shyamalan is trying a bit too hard here.
Overall it mixes art with entertainment like all of Shyamalan's films do, but here the effect feels much lesser than in his other films.
Super Reviewer
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- Cole Sear: I see dead people.
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- Cole Sear: I see dead people.
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- Cole Sear: She wanted me to tell you...
- Lynn Sear: Cole, please stop...
- Cole Sear: She wanted me to tell you she saw you dance. She said, when you were little, you and her had a fight, right before your dance recital. You thought she didn't come see you dance. She did. She hid in the back so you wouldn't see. She said you were like an angel. She said you came to the place where they buried her. Asked her a question? She said the answer is... 'Every day.' What did you ask?
- Lynn Sear: Do... Do I make her proud?
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- Cole Sear: I'm ready to tell you my secret now.
- Dr. Malcolm Crowe: Okay.
- Cole Sear: Come closer.
- Cole Sear: I see dead people. They don't know they're dead.
- Dr. Malcolm Crowe: Where are they?
- Cole Sear: Everywhere.
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- Cole Sear: Stuttering Stanley!
- Stanley Cunningham: Excuse me.
- Cole Sear: You talk funny when you went to school and you talk funny all the way to high school!
- Cole Sear: [repeating] Stuttering Stanley! Stuttering Stanley! Stanley!
- Stanley Cunningham: [shouting] Shut up you freak!
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- Dr. Malcolm Crowe: You like magic? [sitting down facing Cole] Look here's a penny. I'm going to make this penny disappear. I give this a little wave and [clap] it's in my right hand. But that's not the end of the magic trick. I give this a little shake and [tap on inside pocket] it's in my pocket. But that's not the end of the magic trick. I give this a little shake and [clap] it's back where it started.
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Foreign Titles
- Sixième Sens (FR)
Influenced by an old episode of the show "Are You Afraid of the Dark?", this is an engrossing psychological thriller about a troubled child psychologist named Dr. Malcolm Crowe who begins to treat a gifted boy named Cole who confesses he has the ability to see the dead.
Both Dr. Crowe and Cole are troubled, and share a sense of alienation, and while Crowe should be the one helping Cole, it seems that there could be a turning of the tables, with Cole being the one helping Dr. Crowe put his own demons to rest.
Twist endings were nothing new when this film came out, but it seemingly resurrected the trend (for better or worse). Heck, the trend has continued through most of the rest of Shyamalan's own work since then. It is a good twist, and it works, but I like this film regardless of the twist. I mostly just like how well the twist works, and the point that it gives the film, making you realize it's really about something other than you initially think it is.
In general, this is just an extremely well crafted film. Everything is very deliberate, thought out, and expertly set up and executed. This is some great writing and direction, and it's all highlighted by some excellent and evocative cinematography and camera work.
At the core of the film though, and what really holds it all together are the two central performances from Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment,. Willis proved he can really excel at serious drama, and was even awarded an Oscar nod for his efforts. He's great ,but actually manages to get practically outshined by Osment. Most child actors are so-so at best, but this kid knocks it out of the park here, and it's a shame he's pretty well fallen into obscurity. These two have great chemistry with one another, and you really get drawn into their world and want to see them get through their situations. The other performers are also good, but mostly overshadowed by these two, A big exception would have to be the brief but memorable appearance of Donnie Wahlberg as a former patient of Dr. Crowe's. It's chillingly effective.
Actually, 'chillingly effective' is a great way to sum of the whole film. It's moody, atmospheric, eerie, and unforgettable, largely because of the things I've already mentioned, but also because of the terrific score as well.
This film gets talked about a lot, and I doubt any of what I've said are new contributions, but trust this film's reputation as great and go see it if you, for some reason, haven't already.