Retrospective Film Review

The Sixth Sense (1999) • 25 Years Later — a film with a big brain, but bigger heart

A child psychologist starts treating a young boy who can see dead people and convinces him to help them.

“I see dead people.”

Very few lines have injected themselves into the public’s subconscious with such forceful immediacy. The notoriety that M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense garnered was enough to cement it into the annals of cinema history before the year was out. But decades later, after the dust settled around the film that arguably features the most notorious twist in all of film, does the movie still work?

The short answer is yes, but there are caveats. Considering that Shyamalan’s crowning achievement probably enjoys the title of being the most spoiled film ending ever, I imagine many are aware of the twist today without having even watched the film. Indeed, the plot twist had been spoiled for me before I first watched it, meaning I never quite fell in love with the film as a mesmerising illusion like so many did.