How does the director manipulate the audience in 'the sixth sense?'

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Wil Pate

How does the director manipulate the feelings and emotions of the audience in ‘The Sixth Sense’?

The Sixth Sense is an iconic film in today’s popular culture of psychological horror thrillers; with the line, ‘I see dead people’ now being a popular catchphrase. Nominated for six academy awards, and grossing nearly $700,000,000, the film was an immediate success, appealing to a huge audience demographic- its emotional scenes connecting with women, and the horror scenes connecting with teenage boys for example.

The film is centred on Dr Malcom Crowe, a child psychologist, and Cole Sear, a nine year old boy whom we discover has the clairvoyant ability to connect with dead people – his “sixth sense”.

Dr Crowe is shot in the opening scene, by an ex-patient.  The outcome of these injuries is not known, but, the scene fades into the next with the sub-title: “The Next Fall” in which we see Dr Crowe, apparently recovered.  Ultimately, however, we discover that Dr Crowe died from his wound, but it is only in the final scene that this is revealed.  As such, the audience is manipulated throughout the film.  This is known as a twist ending, and whilst this can cause an audience to feel cheated, instead, thanks to the scrutiny of the production team, this is not the case.  In fact, scenes which the audience could potentially use as evidence that Dr Crowe was still alive, thus limiting the merit of the ending, are used to highlight how the viewer is made to feel a certain emotion, whereas, with hindsight, it could be made to feel something different.  

There are three key scenes in which I feel this is particularly well executed. These are: the credits/opening scene, the mind reading scene, and finally, the restaurant scene.

Extra-diagetic and diagetic sounds are combined throughout the soundtrack of the film to add mystery and help to interweave the sound to the action and act as narrative.  For example, in scenes where ghosts are present, the breathing sounds of many people are discretely mastered into the audio, so that it is unclear as to whether they are part of the music or part of the soundtrack.  Music is an essential part of a film, and in horror films particularly it is used to add to the suspense.  Crescendos in the soundtrack coupled with an anti-climax in the plot can lead to the audience being manipulated into a confused and scared state, when used in conjunction with a genuinely significant moment in the plot, it can help to build anticipation.

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The film opens in the conventional way, with credits. Like the music, these appear in a spectral manner, creeping onto the screen, with shadows being cast across them; it lasts for three minutes, leaving the viewer in suspense throughout, which is a thoroughly fitting way of setting the scene of this film.

The darkness is cut through by a close up shot of the filament of a glass light bulb which is gradually growing brighter.  

A woman walks down some steps into a wine cellar, the camera films this from behind the wine rack and is at slightly below ...

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