25 years since the Oscar-nominated horror film The Sixth Sense.

One of the most terrifying and memorable scenes in the horror genre, there are no monsters, bloodcurdling ghosts or brutal murders. Just a close-up of a boy shaking in fear before confessing. Cole Cyr (Haley Joel Osment) looks into the camera, and director M. Night Shyamalan keeps the image static. Gradually, the little actor’s eyes fill with tears. Then follows the phrase that has entered the history of the seventh art. “I see dead people.” explains to a horrified Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis), who listens intently at the patient’s bedside.

This entire episode has gone down in cinema history for several reasons. On the one hand, the film accomplished a feat that is still remembered with a certain nostalgia. In a time before hyper-communication and constant leaks on set, Sixth sense He managed to carefully keep his biggest secret. Moreover, it became the main reason for going to the cinema. This is 39 years after Alfred Hitchcock achieved the same effect in Psychosis.

On the other hand, having managed to win an unexpected and well-deserved award nomination. Oscar for Best Picture. Which allowed it to join the select group of few films of this genre that can boast such an honor. But it was not only a significant success, but also a recognition that revealed many of the film’s virtues. From the outstanding visual effects to the sensitive script. The truth is that Sixth sense There is much more to it than just its ability to scare and excite.

End of Millennium Surprise

By 1999, several interesting things had happened in cinema. By a strange coincidence, the film had just premiered at Sundance. The Blair Witch Project Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick. This film will become a symbol of the genre. But it also revived interest in horror, which had been on the decline in the 1980s. It also revived the idea that creepy stories They can be more than just an endless collection of gory and explicit scenes.

But in case Sixth senseits importance is surpassed only by the contribution of a complex plot that is not based solely on surprises, although there are some. The story of a very young director and screenwriter was not based solely on the appearance or abilities of his child, gifted with a frightening ability to act. In fact, the entire plot went deeper into the human need to be heard and understood.

A New Look at Terror

This allowed the film to function on two different levels. To the extreme, like a classic film, which delves deeper into the theme of ghosts and specters. In fact, Sixth sense has the rare honor of including in its plot a rare glimpse into life after death. Far from religion, collective horror or philosophical explanations, The dead who appeared in the film were, in many ways, simply tragic figures.

Cole, who could see them, makes this clear several times in the story. The dead don’t know they’re dead, he points out in one of the film’s most painful and trenchant lines. At worst, they’re thrown into situations that transcend them, isolate them, and eventually turn them into eternal memories of dramatic situations. Unlike works like At the bottom of the stairs (1980) Peter Medak, lM. Night Shyamalan’s Haunting was a horror without meaning, direction or purpose.

Which made Cole’s gift of being able to communicate with the dead both a trap and a blessing. He could communicate with ghosts, listen to them, and be heard. But it made him a beacon of sorts in the confusion of death. In a child destined to walk through the world aware and terrified of all sorts of visions.ghosts and horrors.

The main theme of “The Sixth Sense”

However, despite all of the above, the main point Sixth sense It wasn’t fear. It was isolation, pain, and trauma, all wrapped up in the interesting packaging of a tense modern horror film. Cole, he needed to explain what he was seeing, but he didn’t know how or to whom. The same thing happened to Malcolm, in the midst of an obvious family crisis. to which he had no answer, despite his knowledge of psychiatry.

Even more painful was the distance between Cole and his mother (a formidable Toni Collette), who tried to protect her son without knowing what had hurt him. All the characters showed the pain of loneliness, confusion and hurt by their injuries in a natural and spontaneous way that was surprising. By the time each of them got the answer they desperately craved, The film eschews horror codes to explore drama.

This allowed it to be more profound than just a means of fear or its ability to scare. Sixth sensewas a film about the complexity of emotional trauma, which at the same time delved into reconciliation. Meanwhile, the film was a beautiful vision of the good and evil of our time. transported to an almost poetic location that surprised and touched the audience.

A well kept secret

Twenty-five years later, it still amazes me how much Sixth sense He kept his main secret. Namely, that Malcolm was dead and that Cohle took it naturally and with some pessimism. But it was the tension caused by this then unpredictable turn that shocked, moved and even frightened the public. Not to mention the critics of the industry. who considered the film a revival of horror cinema of the time.

The rest is history. The film was a box office success and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. Which makes her part of a select group that includes The Exorcist William Friedkin, Shark Steven Spielberg and The Silence of the Lambs Jonathan Demme. But unlike all the previous ones, Sixth sense It is much more than pure terror. It is also a debate about the human heart, which survives death and is ultimately the only way for consciousness to be freed from pain. A particularly profound message for one of the greatest works of horror in the world of cinema.