Oh, M. Night Shyamalan. What happened to you? How did things get to where they are now? You had so much potential, many even thought you could become the second coming of Hitchcock. And where are you now? I don't even know because I'm not paying attention anymore because you've been consistently awful for the last 7-8 years. You let me down, man. I had high hopes. We all did. The Sixth Sense is a fantastic film, and one of the best psychological thrillers to come out in a very long time. The story is imaginative and terrifying, and it's shot with well above average technical competency. This is definitely the peak of Shyamalan's work, both a blessing and a curse to his career. On one hand, it won him widespread critical acclaim and mainstream exposure, and on the other it set the bar VERY high for his future works, a bar that is yet to be passed by Shyamalan. His next effort Unbreakable was also excellent, Signs was good but not particularly remarkable, and after that it's just been a mess of forgettable movies which look pretty but are horrendously written and acted. I mean c'mon, The Happening? What was that? I think his early success caused him to develop a massive ego that led to a huge decrease in quality over the years. It's one thing to be really cocky but still make excellent films (like Quentin Tarantino, dude's insufferable but extremely talented), but it's another to think you're so good that you're incapable of making a bad movie. Oh well, it happens. In the future he'll hopefully be remembered for his excellent early films anyways.
The first time I watched The Sixth Sense I was eleven years old, and it scared the crap out of me. It wasn't the ghosts itself that make the film scary, it's the concept that Shyamalan created, that there are spirits of the dead all around us, and some people can see them. Cole, the young boy in the movie, is one of those people, and is constantly assailed by ghosts who terrify him. It makes him a really sympathetic character, he's a very kind, compassionate smart child who is regarded as a freak because of this condition. It's not bad enough that he has to see walking corpses on a minute-to-minute basis, he needs to take abuse from other kids too? Saddening. It's really scary to think about being this kid, seeing all this horrible things that only you can see, and no one else can help or make them go away. That's the most horrifying part of The Sixth Sense, the feeling of isolation and helplessness. Having this kind of disorder puts you in your own personal hell that no one else can enter, and Cole knows how alone he is.
In regards to the twist ending, Shyamalan handles it brilliantly. There are extremely subtle clues in the plot that may give the ending away early to an extremely perceptive person, but for the most part the moment of realization is exactly where Shyamalan intends it to be. It's one of those movies that you need to watch again after seeing the twist, just to appreciate the subtle things that Shyamalan does to hint towards the ending. I wish I could watch this movie for the first time again, because the first time you see it the ending is straight up mind-blowing.
No comments:
Post a Comment