Time: 108 Minutes
Age Rating: M
Cast:
Bruce Willis as Malcolm Crowe
Haley Joel Osment as Cole Sear
Toni Collette as Lynn Sear
Olivia Williams as Anna Crowe
Director: M. Night Shyamalan

While The Sixth Sense isn’t M. Night Shyamalan’s first film, it was the film which put him on the map as a director to pay attention to and is still considered to be one of his best movies. Revisiting it now, it was even better than I remembered it being.

The Sixth Sense may be a ghost story, but at its core, it is a haunting and emotional character drama and human story about trauma and emotional connections, and not being able to let go or move on. It very effectively juggles the feeling of dread and supernatural horror elements with the emotional depth and drama, and is engaging and paced well throughout its under 2 hour runtime. This movie is particularly famous for a certain twist, and when I first watched the movie, I already knew of it beforehand, and that deflated some of the impact. Revisiting it though, I actually appreciated it more. The moment is well established and set up and absolutely succeeds in landing its gut punch right at the end.

It’s made better by the amazing and moving performances. Bruce Willis delivers a subdued but nonetheless incredible, sombre and emotional performance. Hayley Joel Osment is equally excellent, not surprising that it’s widely considered one of the best child performances. Toni Collette plays Osment’s mother and while she isn’t in the movie much, she makes the most of her scenes, especially towards the end.

M. Night Shyamalan’s direction is amazing, and the cinematography is top notch, with well composed shots and creepy visuals. While the horror isn’t necessarily the focus of the film, it has a good sense of dread and the scares are very well done.

The Sixth Sense is an incredibly well crafted and emotional supernatural horror movie, strongly directed and with excellent performances from Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment and Toni Collette.