Twists & Snaps for M. Night

An Auteur Approach to The Sixth Sense (1999)

Poster for The Sixth Sense (1999) via Wikipedia

The Sixth Sense (1999) – Auteur

Welcome back to Review Roulette: Spooky Edition!

So, this week I was like “maybe I completely abandon the spookiness” because I am a coward, but then my husband wisely mentioned how much he loves M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense (1999) and also lovingly offered to tell me when the scary bits were about to happen, and I relented. Despite my initial reluctance, I really did enjoy the film very much and I was quite pleased that the Review Roulette wheel landed on auteur as our analytical lens because I have *thoughts* on M. Night Shyamalan’s trajectory as a filmmaker.

The Sixth Sense is about a renowned child psychologist, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis), and his young patient Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) who has the unique gift of seeing dead people. Cole’s mother, Lynn (Toni Collette) worries for her son after his dad abandons the family. Willis, Osment, and Collette each give beyond excellent performances in this film. (Special shout out to Collette for her pitch perfect “single Philadelphian mom” performance. Just exquisite.)

Now, your man M. Night loves a good twist right? Let’s talk about twists.

For those who do not live in society and are therefore unaware of the twist in The Sixth Sense, I won’t spoil it. I will say, however, that the film is very well executed. Even knowing the twist ahead of time – because I do, in fact, live in society – I was impressed with how much care the filmmakers took in preserving it throughout. The direction, set design, music, and acting all meticulously serve the gradual building of suspense that lead to the final twist.

Note: I will spoil some twists in some other Shyamalan films though, namely Signs (2002), The Village (2004), and Old (2021).

I personally believe that the twist in The Sixth Sense is the best kind of twist. Like I said about Rashomon (1950) a few weeks ago, The Sixth Sense would have been a good film if it stops with the first plot resolution between Cole and his mother who finally learns that her son’s troubles stem from his supernatural abilities. But then we get the Shyamalan twist that elevates the film and adds substantial emotional depth to Cole’s personality and Osment’s nuanced portrayal of it. For such a young kid, Osment really delivers. Willis is excellent in it, too, but his character, in my opinion, is a supporting role to Cole’s more than Cole supports Malcolm.

So, we have this twist that adds to the film. The film is already excellent, and the twist deepens the message, the emotions, the character arcs, etc. It is so well executed that revealing the twist is not entirely necessary in order to explain behaviours and actions seen earlier in the film – it helps, but it’s not necessary, and it ultimately just makes it a better film.

If we jump ahead a few years to the film that made me a coward, Signs, we now have a film for which the resolution is dependent on the Shyamalan twist. The film cannot be resolved without Mel Gibson’s character realising that his wife’s dying words – from six months prior to the events of the present day – that haunt him daily, are in fact instructions for how to defeat the aliens. Gibson’s character is an Episcopal priest who lost his faith when his wife died far too young, leaving him to raise their two young children. The restoration of his faith in God and his newfound trust in the belief that his wife’s death was divine intervention are necessary to the plot’s culmination.

We start to see a trend – at least in the Shyamalan films with twists that I have seen – with M. Night’s films gravitating towards prioritising the twist rather than the story as in The Sixth Sense. In 2004’s The Village, a group of people are allegedly living in a 19^th century village that is cursed with monstrous creatures in the woods, but after the reveal of the layered Shyamalan twists, we learn that not only is it the 21^st century, but also the leader of the village is a wealthy heir who purchased a wildlife reserve two decades prior, built a wall, and has trapped in it a group of individuals who previously were in grief counselling with concerns of the modern world. The creatures are those “elders” of the village in costume, perpetuating the ruse to keep their children within the confines of the village. Nothing about that movie works as a film in itself without the reveal. Otherwise, it is simply a movie about unconvincing creatures – who look like they are in Pinterested DIY cottagecore costumes on stilts – stalking children in a weird vibes living history village. 4/10.

Finally, Old is a whole experience. One of my best friends and I only see each other a couple times a year, so we save up all the terrible films we want to share throughout the year for one delicious garbage binge, and Old was the centrepiece of one of them. We thoroughly enjoyed it, but it is a whole lot. The film is based on a Swedish graphic novel, Sandcastle, in which people are exploring human nature as they are ageing rapidly on a beach. Shyamalan takes that simple introspective human concept and makes it into a critique on Big Pharma, which we do love. Snaps for M. Night.

Really, though, Old has multiple twists that all come down to “wouldn’t this ALSO be interesting?” but they actually take away from that core concept from the graphic novel exploring rapid human experiences and the things people might start to prioritise once they know definitively that they are ageing drastically. The Shyamalan twist, by Old, becomes almost a hindrance to his storytelling with so many layers of twists that are prioritised over the kinds of character development and depth we get in The Sixth Sense.

That all said, I enjoy three of the four of these movies – not Signs. Fuck Signs. I am still deathly afraid of aliens because of Signs.

The other three I really, truly enjoy but for very different reasons, and that is so okay. That’s what makes art so wonderful and what makes analysing a filmmaker’s filmography so interesting. M. Night Shyamalan is a fascinating director, always featuring our home city (Philly) in interesting, thoughtful, and different ways.

The Sixth Sense is easily the best of his films I’ve seen for its cinematic qualities, its humour, its acting, its careful attention to details, and its truly exceptional characters and screenplay. I loved the message of the film, the twist, all of it, and I especially loved that it was not Signs.

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Because I’m Never Done When I Say I Am

Feminist

This isn’t really feminist, but I just wanted to note again how well Toni Collette did. Not only is the performance so beautiful, but she brings this pain to the character that leaves you heartbroken for much of the film. She is trying so hard to be a good mother to her son and to protect him while also being patient and waiting for him to come to her with his problems. Lynn is such a well-developed character despite having the least screentime of the three, and I think she might be a contender for my favourite mom character on screen. I love her.