Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense

Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense

'With reference to two scenes from Shyamalan's 'The Sixth Sense'

examine the way in which the audiences perception of the film changes

having viewed its dramatic ending. Evaluate the importance of the two

scenes in the film as a whole.'

When the dramatic conclusion of Shyamalan's 'The Sixth Sense' has been

viewed the audiences perception changes. They start to understand how

different techniques have been used to create the illusion that Dr

Malcolm Crowe is alive and how Shyamalan's has duped his audience.

'The Sixth Sense' is initially set up as a thriller before evolving

into a surprisingly touching psychological drama with supernatural

overtones. Shyamalan is able to do this as the typical cinemagoer sees

it as a passive experience and they do not expect to have to think or

work too hard. They would normally expect the plot to be apparent from

near the outset of the film. Other usual expectations are that there

would be very little distraction from the plot so that the viewer

could keep track of what is happening without too much effort. The

viewer sees the directors impression of what is happening and takes on

board the directors views that are shown, thus the audience once again

will not have to concentrate on the plot that hard. They do not

realise how hard Shyamalan has actually made them work until the end

of the film. Shyamalan uses this to his advantage, applying his

cinematography skills to manipulate the audience. The camera work

makes the audience believe they are seeing the truth of the scene and

of the film, when actually the scenes when Dr Malcolm Crowe is present

are not really happen...

... middle of paper ...

... film as Cole begins to

understand the ghosts. Without these scenes the audience would not

understand how scared Cole is of the ghosts and also Cole's line about

the ghost not knowing that they are dead. Shyamalan was successful in

creating a film that was emotive and atmospheric when the twist was

unknown and that was emotive and atmospheric for different reasons

when it was. He managed to create a film that made the audience think

but without them knowing it and a film that people would remember.

This film has been produced nearly flawlessly and there was just the

right amount of clues given if the viewer knew what to look for.

Overall Shyamalan created a film that no matter how many times it was

scene there would always be something new that the viewer would learn.

This helps to support the credibility of the twist.