The Sixth Sense

“I see dead people.” ~The Sixth Sense (1999)

IMDB Summary: A boy who communicates with spirits that don’t know they’re dead seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 85%

Why I love it: It scared the crap outta me. And I did not see the ending coming.

I love M. Night Shyamalan movies. (I know I stand alone, please don’t give me shit.) I love Toni Collette. I sometimes love Bruce Willis.

I saw this movie in the theater when it came out in 1999. It ended up making $672 million dollars. No matter how many times I see it, I always feel sorry for the wife because their marriage turns cold after Malcolm gets shot by his raving lunatic of ex-patient Donnie Wahlberg, because he’s too busy with his young patient to pay attention to her and because she’s so lonely she takes antidepressants and watches her wedding video over and over all by herself. What a dick her husband is. Oh wait… Malcolm was shot. And little Cole sees dead people. They don’t know they’re dead. Duh.

Little Cole is weird. Even his mother knows it. He calls out Stuttering Stanley, gets taumatized by who-knows-what when bullies lock him in an attic, sees people hanging from the school rafters, denies stealing his grandmother’s bumblebee pendant and takes down a mother in the throes of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. I can honestly say seeing that little girl under the bed throwing up was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen.

This is a movie that’s almost funner to watch once you know the ending, once your fear of what’s happening is alleviated knowing these poor ghosts who all met quite savage endings just need a pal. It’s one of only five horror films to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, along with The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Black Swan (2010). And if you ask me, Black Swan doesn’t count, but IMDB says it does. When I looked up what beat The Sixth Sense, for some reason I thought for sure it was going to be something lame, but it was American Beauty. So not lame.

This one might go down as the surprise movie ending ever. Except maybe The Empire Strikes Back. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you probably shouldn’t read anything I write because you’re either a) way younger than me or b) an Australian who doesn’t care, like my husband.

Next: Psycho