07/30/2019
Feel old yet? 'The Sixth Sense' turns 20. The great box-office phenomenon of 1999 â when the internet was still new enough that there were not yet a critical mass of trolls to spoil its surprise, and the audience could participate in the shared community exercise of preserving its secrets.
The movie starred Bruce Willis, an unknown (to American audiences) Australian actress named Toni Collette and, oh yeah, the city of Philadelphia, which looks beautiful and richly historic, the kind of venerable city old enough to be plausibly haunted.
To watch the movie today is to reaffirm how smartly made it was, and how influential it has become to a generation of suspense and horror movies following it. Itâs fun to watch the movie from a 20-year distance, to see how Shyamalan both hinted at and concealed his Big Reveal. Itâs obvious on repeat viewing that Cole immediately sees Malcolm as a ghost: He initially runs from him, fears him, hides in a church, and slowly warms up to Malcolm as he realizes the shrink is sincerely trying to help â and later, that he can be helped.
The Sixth Sense grew into a monster â opening at $26 million its first weekend on Aug. 6, building and holding its audience to an astounding degree, week after week after week. Subsequent weekends registered at $25 million, $23 million, $20 million, then back up to $22 million. Unheard of. The Sixth Sense was one of the last great word-of-mouth movies of the pre-Marvel, pre-blockbuster era, when movies were allowed to marinate in theaters and build an audience, which means it may well be one of the last great word-of-mouth hits ever made.
"I see dead people." The lines have a creepy resonance that reaches across the years, and contribute to the movieâs own well-earned afterlife.