John Chard
Oct 18, 2019
The Sixth Sense phenomenon. Child psychiatrist Malcolm Crowe takes on the case of a deeply troubled boy named Cole Sear. At first Cole is reluctant to be helped, but as Malcolm gets closer to the boy, Malcolm learns the root of Cole's fears, he claims he sees ghosts. The Sixth Sense was a monster hit back in 1999, a deftly crafted ghost story with a kicker that was talked about by all and sundry, the box office bulged and the critics did rave. Nowadays you will find hundreds of people proclaiming that the film is boringly formulaic, that they worked out the film's premise easily in the first quarter of the film, or that the film is a mere cliché, funny how I don't remember it like that back in 1999! The box office bulged because many went to see the film more than once, they went (myself included) back to see just how director M. Night Shyamalan (Academy Award Nominated Best Director) managed to bluff us and pull the rug from under our feet. I remember vividly both times I saw it in the cinema, the crucial turning point of the piece bringing a collective audible gasp from the viewers sunken in their respective seats, that's the sort of impact that carries a film's reputation
