{"id":8085,"date":"2024-10-21T08:03:55","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T12:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/?p=8085"},"modified":"2024-10-21T08:03:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T12:03:55","slug":"sixth-sense-perfect-for-halloween-watch-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/?p=8085","title":{"rendered":"Sixth Sense Perfect for Halloween Watch List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lola Karimi ’25
\nEE\u00a0<\/em>Editor-in-Chief<\/p>\n

The Sixth Sense<\/em> is a classic supernatural thriller, depicting ordinary people catching a glimpse of hidden dimensions. Starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment, the story is of a child psychologist who vows to help Cole, a young, socially isolated boy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cole\u2019s issues may stem from a troubled home life, or it could be something else entirely. Malcolm Crowe, his psychologist, is operating on a guilty conscience. His former patient broke into his house, months before, and shot him before turning the gun on himself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Vincent Grey, Malcolm\u2019s suicidal former patient, exhibited signs of depression and schizophrenia in his youth. Sadly, Malcolm couldn\u2019t pinpoint the exact cause of his anguish. Now, flash forward several years later and Vincent is certainly the worse for wear. He didn\u2019t get the treatment he needed and snapped on a homicidal whim.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It has been long believed that children are better than adults at seeing ghosts; the barriers of skepticism and disbelief are not yet in place. So, in this film, when a small boy solemnly tells his psychologist, \u201cI see dead people. They want me to do things for them.\u201d He seems to be correct.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the film was released, M. Night had not yet established himself as a director obsessed with twist endings, so it was easier to get duped. These movies are not made necessarily to scare you, per se, but entice you with unique perspectives on old Hollywood tropes. Of course, now, the twist at the end of The Sixth Sense<\/em> has been imitated and parodied so much that it would be a hard feat for it to feel original anymore; the tone however carries the movie across Philadelphia in the fall, all the beautifully haunting statuary, the soundtrack, clever dialogue- it is obvious so much attention and effort went into this film. And, it paid off.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the film, Cole learns the value of helping others, both living and dead. Some people in the real world and the world of The Sixth Sense<\/em> are metaphorical ghosts. They\u2019re people in limbo and cannot move on from the past. By communicating, we can enlist the help of others and, in turn, we can help them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that the background is clear, time to spoil the whole thing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the film’s end, we discover Malcolm was dead the entire time. On second viewing, it becomes apparent that no one, except Cole the clairvoyant, interacted with Malcolm after he was shot in the first scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

Strikingly, Malcolm didn\u2019t physically interact with the objects around him, either. He wasn\u2019t seen opening a single door. We assumed he simply did that between cuts. Turns out that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, we first thought his wife, Anna, was coldly ignoring him because their relationship was in a freefall. Again, we reevaluated her character after repeat viewings. Anna wasn\u2019t ignoring her husband, she simply didn\u2019t see or hear him. Anna was in a state of emotional limbo that widows go through. Malcolm was literally invisible to her. \u2026 Or was he?<\/span><\/p>\n

After recently viewing the film and based on my understanding of its lore, I believe Shyamalan buried a second twist beneath the film\u2019s universally-known plot twist. I posit that Anna Crowe, Malcolm\u2019s wife, had the same ability to see and speak to the dead that Cole does. Since Anna is a background character with minimal screen time, the hints and allusions are easy to dismiss. Viewers spent the majority of the film focusing on Cole and Malcolm and forget there are other characters who have these abilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ghosts wander the Earth, seeking justice or closure. They\u2019re oblivious to the plight of other spirits. Only living ghost-seers like Cole can see them all. Finally, because they\u2019re in a state of denial about their deaths, they filter out oddities like not being able to do what normal humans can (e.g. opening doors and moving chairs).<\/span><\/p>\n

When Malcolm finds Anna sleeping on the couch, he is flummoxed by her muttering \u201cWhy did you leave me Malcolm?\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI never left you\u201d he replied. Suddenly, Anna drops an object that rolls across the floor and clatters at her husband\u2019s feet. His wedding ring. Wait, why does his wife have his ring? Why is he NOT wearing his ring? How\u2014Why\u2014 The revelation hits him like a tsunami. He\u2019s been dead the whole time. His lovely wife wasn\u2019t ignoring him, no, no. She was grieving. She didn\u2019t acknowledge his presence simply because she couldn\u2019t see or hear him.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a series of flashbacks, Malcolm comes to terms with his death and is ready to move on to the afterlife. But not before giving Anna some parting words. \u201cI think I can go now. Just needed to do a couple of things. I needed to help someone; I think I did. And I needed to tell you something: you were never second, ever. I love you. You sleep now. Everything will be different in the morning.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Malcolm Crowe Sleepily, yet strangely, Anna responds directly to him. \u201cGood night, Malcolm.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGood night, sweetheart.\u201d And the film fades to white before showing us one last glimpse of the married couple\u2019s first kiss in holy matrimony.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, wait. Hold the phone. Did Anna directly communicate with her dead husband in her sleep? How is this possible? One may surmise that ghosts can communicate with ANYONE in their sleep. I do have a query to that, though- Why didn\u2019t Kyra tell her father about her mother poisoning her with pine cleaner? Why didn\u2019t Lynn\u2019s mother communicate with her daughter through her sleep to fix their unresolved issues? Instead, both ghosts had to go through Cole to relay their messages. Why? The simple answer is: Because Lynn and Kyra\u2019s father did not have the ability to speak to the dead. The unsaid fourth rule governing the dead is ghosts must first become self-aware before communicating with ghost-seers in their sleep. Cole seemed to be aware of this rule when he advised Malcolm to talk to his wife as she slept.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lola Karimi ’25 EE\u00a0Editor-in-Chief The Sixth Sense is a classic supernatural thriller, depicting ordinary people catching a glimpse of hidden dimensions. Starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment, the story is of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":8087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8088,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8085\/revisions\/8088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}