A01 The Sixth Sense Essay

The Sixth Sense is film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is about a young boy (Hayley Joel Osment) who communicates with spirits that don't know they're dead, and how he is given the help from a troubled psychologist (Bruce Willis). The film has an underlying secret that you don't know until the end of the film. The film has been certified 15 by the BBFC, due to the film having some moderate gore. The films target audience is teenagers, young adults and adults, and I think that they meet that audience very well, as I wouldn't let a child watch it as it might creep them out with the use of bodies and people with injuries. The film is 107 minutes long, and it was produced by Barry Mendel Productions/Hollywood Pictures/The Kennedy/Marshall Company and Spyglass Entertainment. It cost an estimated $55,000,000 to make and on its opening weekend in America it took a reported $26,681,262. The Director, M. Night Shyamalan, had previously directed 2 films, Praying With Anger (1992) and Wide Awake (1996) these films were not so successful, and his films after The Sixth Sense have not been so popular either. The Sixth Sense was Shyamalan's biggest grossing film. Haley Joel Osment (now 22) had previously been in  Forrest Gump (1994), Mixed Nuts (1994), For Better Or Worse (1995), Bogus (1996), Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997, as Chip) and Ransom of the Red Chief (1998). Bruce Willis had previously been in 37 other films prior to The Sixth Sense. He is one of the world's best known actors and is perfect for the role of Dr Malcolm Crowe. You can tell that the film is a psychological horror, as the film does play with your mind, with the twist at the end being part of it. The film is not so much of a horror as it is not extremely gory, I think this has been named incorrectly as the film makes you jump, it doesn't make you want to hide behind your sofa. The DVD was released on 28th March 2000, and since has be re-released as a special edition DVD. The extras on the DVD include a Storyboard Process of how the film was storyboarded and how long it took to do this. The storyboards allowed the Director and the Crew to put in a lot more detail and it was also cheaper. There were also deleted scenes, reflections from the set and a documentary which talked about people's experiences with the supernatural world, and the history behind it.



The film trailer is edited to make the film look very edgy and have a lot of action in it. There are snippets throughout the film that make it look like it is going to be very scary, when in fact it isn't. They put different scene's together to make it look scarier than it actually is. The use of heartbeats towards the middle of the film, makes your heart beat at the same time. The heartbeat gets quicker and the fades on the clips get quicker as well. There are lots of sudden drum beats which make you jump as the rest of the trailer is quiet. There comes a point where the music does a sudden drum beat, and the frame goes white, we then come back to seeing Cole in a room full of creepy dolls hanging from the ceiling. This shows that something weird and creepy will happen in this scene, as dolls are a feature used in psychological and horror films. The trailer then becomes loud again with another sudden drum beat, where the editors have used the clip of Cole and the little girl Kara, who is underneath her bed.  At 1.36 in this trailer we finally get to see some of the actors names. They aren't in the same font as the closing credits. At this point the music changes, and it sounds more electronic. The trailer includes many establishing shots, two shots, and close ups of the characters.

The Sixth Sense poster, shows a young boy, Cole, looking vulnerable and scared, whereas Bruce Willis, Malcolm, looks stern and focused. The light in the top right of the poster is put there to look like a ghost is coming. But if you look closely you can see that where the orange/yellow colour hits the black, it looks like silhouettes of heads. The font on this poster is quite scratchy and is the same font that is on the DVD. The breath coming from Cole shows the typical feature that is goes cold when there are spirits around. This poster is meant to set you up to make you feel spooked and excited about going to see it. A website wasn't the best thing to use to promote the film back in 1996 as not everyone had the internet, so they used posters instead.

The film is set in America in the 1990s, and follows the life of a young boy named Cole (Hayley Joel Osment), who has a secret that he can tell no one. He can see dead people. Cole is helped by child psychologist  Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) who dedicates his life to Cole and helping him, because he made a mistake with another patient called Vincent (Donnie Wahlberg). Vincent believes that Crowe failed him when he was younger and had problems and as a result of this Vincent shoots Crowe in the abdomen and seconds later shoots himself. Crowe then believes that this is his chance to make up for the things he did wrong. He then sets off in trying to help Cole with his secret. Cole then tries to talk to ghosts and help them as they have unfinished business to attend to. A mager point in the film is where Cole tells his mother Lynn (Toni Collette) thatg he sees ghosts. At first she does not believe him, but Cole explains to her that her Mum saw her at a dance recital when she was younger after they had had an argument, and he also tells her the answer to a question she asked when alone at her mother's grave. Lynn tearfully accepts this as the truth. Cole counsels Crowe on his marriage and what he can do to make his wife start talking to him again. Crowe then returns back to his home and finds his wife asleep on the sofa watching a video of the couple's wedding. Whilst she is sleeping Anna drops Crowe's wedding ring, which he suddenly discovers he has not been wearing, and this reveals the tiwst at the end of the film. Crowe is infact dead after being shot by Vincent, and has been dead the whole time of the film but without knowing.

The opening sequence of The Sixth Sense consists of dramatic music which dramatically changes when the title of the film shows. This gives the imagery that the film is going to be intense and dramatic. The music is quite eerie as well which adds a feel of suspense. It sounds haunting and creepy, almost like wind is howling throughout it. The text on the opening credits, is in a serif font and it is all in capitals, this highlights the importance of the text as it shows you who produced the film and the actors in it. The text slowly zooms in from the back of the screen forwards to create a feeling of suspense that ties in with the music. The title of the film 'The Sixth Sense,'  also comes up in a slow zoom up but a black shadow goes across it, which gives the impression that a ghost is going across. These opening credits then very slowly fade into a lightbulb which again slowly lights up.

The scene including Anna Crowe (Olivia Williams), Malcolm and Vincent, is very tense and dramatic. There are POV shots from Malcolm looking at a broken telephone and a smashed window, showing that someone has broken into the house. The room they are in is very dark and creates an eerie feeling. The mid shot of Anna and Malcolm shows that they are scared, as Anna is standing very close to him. It all goes quiet for a second and a dark shadow passes them, Anna lets out a small scream. There is then a slow zoom into the bathroom area. A slow zoom will create suspense and tension and keep your eyes gripped to see who or what is in there. The net shot goes from toe to head quite sharply, revealing who is in the bathroom. Vincent, a boy that Malcolm tried to help years ago, is in the bathroom. He his naked apart from his underwear. He is scratching his left arm twitching his feet, biting his nails and holding onto doorframes when he speaks showing that he is vulnerable. He has a cut on his legwhich may suggest that he has self harmed or tried to kill himself before. You can see that Vincent is clearly troubled and angry with Malcolm when he speaks to him, as he starts off whimpering and then progressivly gets very angry with Malcolm as Vincent believes that he has failed him. A close up and pan of Vincent's face is used when he says, 'Some people call me freak,' you can see the emotion clearly in this shot as he his whimpering and distraught, almost looking angry with himself as he thinks he is a freak. Vincent turns away walking into the bathroom, picks up something turns back around to Malcolm ans shoots him. The next shot is a mid shot pan where Vincent puts the gun to his head and kills himself. A birds eye shot is then used to show Malcolm lying on the bed pressing on his wound and his wife Anna running over. This birds eye then fades out into a black screen with music playing. This music sounds like some sort of soft screech and makes the hairs of the back of your neck stand up.

The next scene shows Malcolm watching Cole and circling, acute anxiety, parents divorced, socially isolated, possible mood disorder. All the things Malcolm described Vincent as in the previous scene. The editing of this scene is at a normal pace, considering that Cole is running to something and Malcolm is following. There are many shots of Cole and Malcolm running to speed up the process. Cole then runs into a church, which has a red door. Red is a theme that runs throughout the film, it symbolises warmth, death, violence, warning, ange, danger etc. The church symbolises safety, shelter or a sanctuary. Its a place where Cole can turn to without being in immense fear of his secret.

The next key scene shows Lynn going into her kitchen and seeing that all the cupboards and draws are open. There is no dramatic music playing just the sound of a radio and everyday noises. Lynn closes all of the cupboards and draws and leaves Cole sitting and the table for just a second. She comes back to see Cole exactly where he was, but the cupboards and draws have been opened again. Alot of this scene seems to have been filmed without a tripod and they movements look very natural, almost hand held. This could be a POV of what one of the ghosts is seeing. Lynn looks at the table and sees hand prints from where Cole's hands have been. They look like sweat patches. They fade away with some delicate music in the background, to show that this is part of Cole's secret. A few minutes later in the film, Lynn looks at old baby photos of Cole and sees that in every photo he has got a light close to him, known in the spiritual world as an orb. An orb is a circle, or a beam of what looks like light on a photo. People believe that these are spirits coming back to our world. Whilst she is looking at them, delicate music is being played again. All of this delicated music relates to each other as it is showing that these are key parts to the film and the unveiling of Cole's secret.

Another scene that plays a big part in the film, is when Cole is at school with his peers. He is sitting in class minding his own business when the teacher asks a question on what the school used to be. Cole replys that it used to be a place where people were hanged. He then gives a detailed description of who used to send people to be killed and that families would cry. The teacher dismisses this and looks at Cole. Cole starts to shout at the teacher as he is looking at him in a way which he doesn't like. Cole then gets worse and ends up screaming 'Stuttering Stanley,' at his teacher, revealing that his teacher used to have a stutter when he was younger. The teacher gets very angry and slams his fist on Cole's desk. The slamming of the fist is a worms eye shot to make the teacher look more powerful, but it can also be a POV from Cole, as he is sitting down. This is the same when we see Cole's reaction to the teacher as the camera is looking down on Cole, this shot being either a birds eye or a POV from the teacher.

Cole then goes to a birthday party. He tries to impress one of the other children with a magic trick, which fails. You see that he is socially isolated as he doesn't interact with the other children and he is on his own in a corner a lot. The next shot is a worms eye shot of a red balloon floating up some stairs, this intrigues Cole and he walks up to it. The lighting changes as he goes up the stairs from very light, to extremley dark. He hears a deep voice calling from up the staircase, the music playing in the background sounds like a swarm of bee's flying towards you. Cole slowly creeps up the stairs creating suspense and tension. He walks up the stairs until he is in line with the string from the balloon and stays there. Cole is wearing a red jumper, which coinsides with the red balloon. As I mentioned before, red is a sign on danger, warmth, death and in this case violence. There is then a slow zoom that makes its way into Cole, and then there is a POV shot of a dark cupboard. The next shot is from inside the cupboard and the camera is looking at Cole. Cole looks terrified and this shot from the cupboard looks down on Cole, making him looks weak and vulnerable. The next shot in this scene is of two boys, they are talking at the bottom of the stairs and walk up to Cole. You see Cole's icy white hands gripping onto the banister as you see the boys come up the stairs. The bee-like sound is still in the background, telling you that something will happen and its keeping you on the edge of your seat. The pitch of this sound gets higher the further the boys get up the stairs. Eventually when the boys reach Cole, the music fades a little. They tell Cole that he will be taking part in a pretend play, but they lie and force Cole into the cupboard where the voice was coming from. The next shot is from Cole's POV and the door gets slammed in his face. You then hear Cole screaming and banging on the door, but the shot is from outside. Here M.Night Shyamalan has used enigma to keep you wondering about what is in the cupboard. There are then scratches on the door and a shot of the red balloon. When the balloon pops you hear Cole scream and then there is silence. Cole's mum hears the scream and runs up the stairs. On her way up she can hear Cole screaming 'Mum! Mum!' His mum runs to the door and tries frantically to open it. After about 30 seconds of Cole's mum trying to get him out and Cole screaming, he stops and the door unlocks from the inside. Lynn opens the door and quickly reaches in to get Cole. In slow motion you see Lynn take an unconscious Cole out of the cupboard. The next shot is a pan of Lynn in the hospital talking to a doctor, they believe that she has been hurting her son. Malcolm is at the hospital as well and doesn't believe what he is hearing. There are close ups of Lynn and the doctor to show that they are in a important conversation. There is a close up of Malcolm, and by his facial expressions he looks guilty about what happened to Cole. The next shot of this scene is of Cole in his hospital bed. The room is very dark with the only light coming in from the window. You can see Cole's reflection in the window. Malcolm then goes into the room to see him, he tells him a story to try and break the ice. Malcolm is on a wheeled chair, and this is shown when Malcolm moves towards him, but the camera is on Malcolm's POV. Malcolm then tells his story to Cole and uses a lot of past tense phrases explaining that things have been different since he went wrong with Vincent, and that he is having troubles with his wife. There is then a close up of Cole looking very scared, an over the shoulder shot follows this and Cole tells Malcolm that he wants to tell him his secret. There is then a close up of Cole, and the music picks up and sounds like sharp flutes and brassy instruments. There is a slow zoom on Cole's face as he whispers he secret. The most famous line from the film 'I see dead people,' Malcolm then questions Cole on when he see's them, and what they look like. The bee like noise comes back for a second and then the music from the titles come back to show that this is one of the main parts of the film. Close up's are a key part to this scene as it creates more tension in the film, and gives the film more depth. Malcolm then reassess Cole and finds that he is more troubled than he first thought, visuals hallucination, paranoia, school ages schizophrenia, medication and hospitalisation may be required. Mst of the things Vincent was diagonsed with. His mother then takes him home and discovers the deep scratches on his back. These are most likely to have come whatever was in the cupboard.

One of the next scenes starts with a establishing shot outside Cole's house, then a shot of his living room and then a shot of Cole's bedroom door. The lighting in this frame is very dark, as it is nighttime. Cole comes out from his bedroom and goes to the toilet. He runs to the toilet beacuse he is in fear of what could happen to him. There is then a close up of a thermostat which rapidly goes down in temperaturethis is a typical convention in the spirit world, that the temperature drops when there is a spirit near. The next shot is a long shot of Cole in the bathroom and a woman in a pink bathrobe walks past, whilst the person walks past, there is a sound that almost sounds like a jail door slamming. There is then a close up of Cole looking extremely scared, you can see his breath. A POV shot form Cole is used to show him walking down the hallway, as he is walking down you can hear clanging of kitchen utensils and some delicate music in the background. The next shot is on Cole in the doorway, you can see he looks frightened but is putting on a brave face. The woman, who is surrounded by open cupboards and draws(just like earlier in the movie) turns around. She has a massive black eye and seems to have been crying, the camera zooms up pretty quickly at this point. The next shot seems to be a POV from Cole and it is also a worms eye shot as the woman looks like she has more power. The next shot is an extreme close up of the womans wrists. She has deep lacerations on both wrists from where either she or her husband has been cutting her. The music at this part is very dramatic and sounds like screeching. Cole then runs back to his bedroom, and gets into his selfmade church. You then go back to a low angle shot of the woman who is standing in the kitchen shouting at her husband. Inside the church, Cole puts on his flashlight and sits there whimpering. The music dies down a bit and you see a few shots of Cole's religious figures. You then see Cole shaking and breathing heavily, the light can be seen from outside his church, and you can tell that he is trembling with fear.

Another small scene that includes Cole and Malcolm is after he has done the school play. They walking down the corridor, which has been shot on a dolly, when Cole comes to a stand still, the camera zooms back and comes upwards as Malcolm walks back. Creepy music starts to come back in to the frame, Cole then slowly turns his head to a gap in the wall. Then the sound of what seems to be violins screechs and we get a long shot of 3 bodies that have been hanged. There are then close ups of each of the bodies and they seem to be peasants from a older time. What is creepy about this shot is that their eyes are sill open, staring at Cole. Malcolm can't see these ghosts and questions Cole about them. There is then a two shot of Cole and Malcolm and Malcolm keeps looking back to the gap where the people were, but Cole will not look and keeps his eyes down.

Lynn and Cole sit down for tea in the next scene, and Lynn talks to Cole about a Bumblebee pendant that belonged to her mother. Lynn presumes that Cole keeps taking it, when infact he hasn't (we find this out later on) There is a two shot of the both of them that slowly zooms into Cole who is being questioned by his Mum. This shot pans over to his Mum who then says her bit. The camera follows the Mum so she is always in the middle of the frame. There is also an extremley slow zoom into the characters everytime it moves.

A dog runs out of Cole's room in the next scene, and running very quickly like it is trying to get away from something. The lighting on this shot is dark again which makes it look mysterious. There is silence and a boy walks from one room into Cole's. This is an over the shoulder shot as Cole is facing the camera and doesn't know that the boy has gone into his room. There is then a noise that sounds like a gust of wind as the boy goes into Cole's room, Cole sharply turns around to see the boy come out of his room, shot in a mid shot, the boy turns around and you see that he has a massive slice of his head missing. This is where the film has been rated a 15 because of its gory images. There is then a mid shot of the dog hiding behind some utensils. The next shot is of Cole's Mum trying to to get the dog to come out, when Cole walks in on her crying and asks if he can sleep in her room. She panics when Cole gives her a hug as he is freezing cold and shaking. She begs for Cole to tell her what is happening, while Cole clings on to her for dear life.

Following up Malcolm's troubles with his wife at home, Cole tries to help him. Malcolm has to tell Cole that he cannot be his doctor anymore. This scene is very emotional as it ends up with Cole being in tears and Malcolm welling up his eyes. This scene is filmed as a series of over the shoulder shots. Malcolm then has flashbacks of what Vincent said before he shot him. He finds a tape of Vincent in his cellar and listens to it. He finds that Vincent was telling the truth about thing she had said when he was younger and that Malcolm was wrong to stop treating him. He plays the tape backwards at a high volume and hears a voice talking to Vincent. This technique is known as EVP and has been around for many years. It is when you record something, then play it backwards at a higher volume and usually frequency to see if there is anyone else talking that through the human ears you cannot physcially hear. Malcolm finds that there was someone else there, and that he had failed Vincent.

The next shot starts with Cole kneeling outside his 'church,' we then have a high angle shot of Cole. You can tell that something is going to happen, as you can see his breath, an he is shivering. He sharply turns around, as he can hear what sounds like feet scuttling. He hears more movement and hurries to get back into his church. The lighting in this part of the scene is very dark, with the only light coming from the right of the church. This creates lots of shadows that can be used to play with the mind. A canted dutch shot is used to show the hallway, and Cole trying to get in, it makes it more interesting to the eye insted of every shot being straight on. There is then a shot of Cole inside the church. The only light is from his flashlight, and it is only lighting up his face and part of the church, leaving the background dark. You can see Coles breath even more now, which suggests that the spirit is closer to him. The camera then pans up, following the light to the sound of what seems to be a twig snapping. The camera then follows the roof of the church, as the pegs that keep it together are being opened. This is signalled by a gust of harsh brass instruments. The camera then suddenly moves to an image of a little girl who is sitting in the church, frothing at the mouth. The camera quickly pans to Cole who is looking up at the girl in horror. Cole runs out of his church, leaving the girl behind and runs to his living room. You can tell that Cole is getting even more frightened as he doesn't whimper anymore, infact now he does cry. A slow pan is used to show Cole coming from down the hallway. The camera seems to have come from inside Cole's bedroom. The sound of the bee's comes back again, and the camera slowly moves back on a dolly, as Cole walks forwards. There is then a slow zoom from Cole's perspective of a raised red sheet. The editing cuts back and forth from the POV of Cole, to the camera looking at Cole, to create tension and suspense. Underneath this sheet is the girl, she is very pale and looks quite gaunt. Cole is frightened of what he sees, and the girl says 'I'm feeling much better now,' and Cole replies, 'Did you want to tell me something?' This created another enigma as the camera then just cuts off and we do not know what the girl says. The next shot we see is Cole on his way to the little girl's house with Malcolm, he comes across a graveyard and looks away. The establishing shot that follows, show loats of people wearing black and this immediately creates the impression that there is a wake taking place for the little girl. Inside the wake, Cole goes up the stairs with Malcolm, he goes to open the door very slowly, which creates a build upfor whats inside. Inside is the litle girl's room, there are lots of little dolls and toys, and home videos which show how young the girl was. Everything goes quiet, and out of nowhere an arm pops out from under the bed. This is shot in a long shot, so you can see a the body language and expression Cole gives. The editing then cuts to the girl under the bed, who is holding a box, she pushes it forwards to give to Cole who is sat in the corner of the room heavily breathing. We then return back downstairs and see a shot of the girl's Mother who doesn't look very upset. Cole carries the box to the Father of the little girl, who looks intensely depressed and in his own little world. He does not answer Cole at fist but eventually raises his head. The Father takes the box as Cole says that Kara (the little girl) wants to tell him something. The camera then pans round to a close up of the Father's face The TV screen prodcues some white noise before the tape is put in. The tape shows a little puppet show that Kara made, it cuts back to a close up of the Father who has tears in his eyes. Whilst he is wathing the video, a crowd forms behind him, the video then shows the Kara in bed and her Mother coming up to feed her. We see a close up of the Mother putting poison into the girl's food.  a slow zoom onto the Father's face is shown, and we see that the crowd has grown massively. The camera then shows the Mother, who is wearing a red suit, and the Father who confronts her. Zooms are constatly used in this part of the film.

The next key scene is with Cole and his mother Lynn. They are sitting in a traffic jam as there has been an accident further up the road. A camera uses a dolly to go from the scene of the crash up to the car. There is no non-diagetic sound in this scene, only the sound of the actors. Cole says to his Mother that he is ready to communicate with her now and tell her his secrets. This shot is a two shot as you can see the both of them. He explains to his Mum that a lady got hurt in the accident, his Mum thinks that Cole can see the accident site, but infact she is outside his window. The camera swaps back from Cole an his Mum to see the reactions from each person. Cole says that 'Grandma says hi and that she takes the bumblebee pendant because she likes it so much,' This part of the conversation focuses on the reaction of Lynn. She is very shocked and tells Cole it is very wrong to say things like that because Grandmas is gone. Cole tells his Mum that Grandmas saw her dance, something which Lynn never knew. Lynn bursts into tears as a reaction to this. Cole replies to a question that Lynn asked her Mum after she died, the answer is everyday. Lynn asked her Mum if she made her proud.

The next scene is of Malcolm and his wife, she is asleep covered in a red blanket. Malcolm talks to Anna and Anna replies but doesn't make any sense. She asks why he left her and Malcolm doesn't understand. Anna turns around and drops Malcolm's wedding ring on the floor, the ring rolls under her chair and to Malcolm's feet. Malcolm picks the ring up and finds that he hasn't been wearing it for ages. The editing then cuts back to Cole who is lying in bed from a previous scene ssaying, 'I see people. People that don't know they're dead.' Malcolm and Cole's conversation in the hospital is replayed, but with the visals of Malcolm stepping away from his wife. Malcolm walks into the hallway and see's that the table has only been set for one,  and that a door he has trying to get into has been jammed by a bookcase. Music comes back into the scene, and Malcolm goes upstairs. The music gets louder as a shot of Anna sleeping is scene, but she is shivering and you can see her breath. We then go back to the beginning of the film, where the sound of a gunshot is heard and Malcolm is lying on the bed. Malcolm in the present time then looks at his shirt, and see's that he has a mssive bloodpatch on the back of it. Malcolm then goes back downstairs and sits by his wife and says that he thinks he can go now after he has down a few things. He tells anna that she was never second best and that he loves her. The ending is very tearful, as it ends with Malcolm and Anna both saying goodnight ot each other and then a white light fades over them. This is typical as people say that when you die you see a white light, when you pass over to the other side.



The closing titles of this film, start with a fade into the Directors name. The background is black and the font is white. The font is sans serif, and it is widely spaced out. The people's role is in italics and the name of the person is in bold so you can tell the difference.   The titles run from bottom to top, and the music is very delicate, to resemble the peaceful ending, unlike the opening credits that start quite dramatially to build up tension.

The audience's reading the second time round is completely different to the first time you see it, as the second time round you notice things you didn't see before. Things such as Malcolm never has to open a door, and he only sees things he wants to see. When you watch it the second time you do see things that are quite odd and wonder why Malcolm is acting like that, but then you finally figure it out and realise that the directing and editing of the film has been very cleverly done, so that you don't see the twist coming the first time round.

The Crew have played a vital part in the creation of this film, without the fantastic input of the production crew, set design crew, the producers, casting director and everyone else in the crew, this film would not have been possible to produce. Also the music in the film plays a key role to set the mood, and the atmosphere.

The BBFC rated different versions of the film as different ratings. The film itself was given a certificate of 15, whereas the trailers were given a certificate of 12. Online the film, and video at the time, were given certifications of 15 also. In the UK the producers and editors of The Sixth Sense didn't have to re-edit any of the film as it met the standards of the BBFC.