It’s neither as bad as the metacritic score (64) nor is it as good as the box office suggests (one of the bigger hits of the 90’s (2nd behind only phantom menace in 1999))
Shyamalan has an inarguable and contagious self confidence in his filmmaking – it’s personal—set in Philly, his trademark (now) whispering of dialogue—there aren’t a lot of gorgeous shots (there’s a great tracking shot through traffic at the very end with the biker and the ceiling with red balloon is a nice one) but I admire the screenplay construction and payoff
Certainly there are touches of Spielberg (work with children) and 1990’s ghost with Haley Joel Osment in an unfunny (mostly) take on the Whoopi Goldberg scenario/character
Largely visually quiet
Haley Joel Osment and Toni Collette are both excellent—their final scene together in the car is well-earned in its poignancy—the relationship (like his with Wills is well constructed and take it’s time)
Recommend but not anywhere too close to the top 10 of 1999
Somehow this film made the AFI top 100 list at 89…3 spots higher than Goodfellas lol
I actually enjoyed this as a kid, well maybe enjoyed isn’t the right word as I was 11 when it came out and it scared me to death the first time I watched with my family during a vacation in Florida, I was scared to walk to bathroom at night for a couple of weeks.
@Drake – It is, I thought of a lof of his early films when I was in middle school, watching some of them recently they don’t really hold up although I do Unbreakable (2000) is solid, probably his best film in my opinion. The only films of his I would consider Recommend material would be
The Sixth Sense (1999) – R
Unbreakable (2000) – R/HR
Signs (2002) – Fringe R
Split (2016) – R
@James Trapp- I have Sixth Sense, Signs and Split all with R and that’s it so far for M. Night Shyamalan. I have seen Unbreakable- enjoyed it- but it has been 20 years and I didn’t archive it at the time. I’d see it again. Shyamalan’s career has been sort of my worry with Jordan Peele.
James Trapp
September 4, 2022 at 7:45 pm
@Drake – I can see some similarities with Peele, especially Us (2019) which has some of the negative aspects of M Night, particularly the almost desparate attempt at a twist ending for the sake of a twist ending. Thankfully Get Out and Nope both exceed any of M Night’s films in my opinion, especially on a visual level.
@Matthew – crazy I know, I feel like they were desparate for some recent films when this 2007 update of the original 1998 list was made. But why they would choose this one I don’t know. It was pretty hyped when it first came out. The “I see dead people” became a common pop culture reference that was parodied. But that’s just my theory, who knows why AFI included it.
I have some family that love this movie and think it’s a must-watch. They are the ones that showed it to me many years ago. They’re a little more into “movies” and not “cinema” (not sure how else to word that but I think this distinction gets the point across) and what blew them away was the big twist ending at the end. They thought it was the most genius thing ever. I wonder if it was a similar response for the AFI guys, they were just super perplexed by the ending and it ended up having a lasting impression better than it really was. Though, I would hope that the people at the AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTION would be more knowledgeable than some of my more pop-corn oriented family members but that seems to have not been the case.
[…] The Sixth Sense – Shyamalan […]
Somehow this film made the AFI top 100 list at 89…3 spots higher than Goodfellas lol
I actually enjoyed this as a kid, well maybe enjoyed isn’t the right word as I was 11 when it came out and it scared me to death the first time I watched with my family during a vacation in Florida, I was scared to walk to bathroom at night for a couple of weeks.
@James Trapp- It is a nice little film- but thankfully one that has not found its way to the TSPDT top 1000
@Drake – It is, I thought of a lof of his early films when I was in middle school, watching some of them recently they don’t really hold up although I do Unbreakable (2000) is solid, probably his best film in my opinion. The only films of his I would consider Recommend material would be
The Sixth Sense (1999) – R
Unbreakable (2000) – R/HR
Signs (2002) – Fringe R
Split (2016) – R
@James Trapp- I have Sixth Sense, Signs and Split all with R and that’s it so far for M. Night Shyamalan. I have seen Unbreakable- enjoyed it- but it has been 20 years and I didn’t archive it at the time. I’d see it again. Shyamalan’s career has been sort of my worry with Jordan Peele.
@Drake – I can see some similarities with Peele, especially Us (2019) which has some of the negative aspects of M Night, particularly the almost desparate attempt at a twist ending for the sake of a twist ending. Thankfully Get Out and Nope both exceed any of M Night’s films in my opinion, especially on a visual level.
Above Goodfellas? Uhhhh……….
@Matthew – crazy I know, I feel like they were desparate for some recent films when this 2007 update of the original 1998 list was made. But why they would choose this one I don’t know. It was pretty hyped when it first came out. The “I see dead people” became a common pop culture reference that was parodied. But that’s just my theory, who knows why AFI included it.
They might have been really high on that twist ending too
I have some family that love this movie and think it’s a must-watch. They are the ones that showed it to me many years ago. They’re a little more into “movies” and not “cinema” (not sure how else to word that but I think this distinction gets the point across) and what blew them away was the big twist ending at the end. They thought it was the most genius thing ever. I wonder if it was a similar response for the AFI guys, they were just super perplexed by the ending and it ended up having a lasting impression better than it really was. Though, I would hope that the people at the AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTION would be more knowledgeable than some of my more pop-corn oriented family members but that seems to have not been the case.
The Sixth Sense over Goodfellas. Unbelievable lol
Drake do you have some sort of Shyamalan ranking?
@Matthew- I do not, three films in the archives: The Sixth Sense, Signs, and Split
No love for Unbreakable ?
@KidCharlemagne- I’ve seen it… multiple times… you wouldn’t get a long argument from me on including it. It is solid.