Classic Horror Mystery On Hulu Gives Controversial Director His Biggest Career Hit
If you’ve been following the career of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, you’re likely already aware of the fact that the director’s body of work can be quite hit or miss. Despite many of his recent outings earning the ire of critics and general audiences alike, Shyamalan has a handful of undeniable hits in his catalog, which have allowed him to continue coasting on the good faith of many viewers. The filmmaker’s biggest hit, 1999’s The Sixth Sense, is currently streaming on Hulu, just in case you’re interested in seeing the height of his filmmaking abilities.
The Sixth Sense Is A Certified Classic
Even if you’ve never seen The Sixth Sense before, you likely have some level of familiarity with the film’s plot due to pop culture osmosis. The film has been parodied, homaged, and copied more times than you could count, and the famous line “I see dead people” has gone down in pop culture history as one of the most iconic lines in cinema history. Still, for those who haven’t seen the film before, or those who haven’t made room for a rewatch in decades, here’s a brief overview of the film’s plot.
I See Dead People
The Sixth Sense centers on a child psychologist named Malcolm Crowe, played exceptionally by Bruce Willis. After a terrifying experience with a home invader, Crowe suffers a gunshot wound, which causes his wife to grow distant and unfeeling towards him. A few months later, Crowe takes on a new patient in the form of 9-year-old Cole Sear. Cole, as played by Haley Joel Osment, is a deeply anxious young boy who suffers from bullying at school, and claims to have a supernatural ability to see ghosts.
A Twist Ending
At first, Crowe believes that the boy is schizophrenic and attempts to prescribe him antipsychotic medication. After a bit of digging, however, the therapist comes to believe in Cole’s supernatural abilities and urges him to help the various ghosts he encounters to let go of their unfinished business on Earth. As the narrative of The Sixth Sense builds to its iconic twist ending, the pair learn to rely on one another to understand and interpret the bizarre world of the afterlife.
M. Night Shyamalan’s Highest Rated Film
The Sixth Sense was an immediate smash hit upon release and quickly grew to become the second highest-grossing film of 1999, despite M. Night Shyamalan’s status as a relatively unknown filmmaker. Today, The Sixth Sense offers the highest Rotten Tomatoes ranking of any Shyamalan film to date, with a near-perfect critic score of 86 percent.
Personally, I find it to be one of the only outings in Shyamalan’s catalog that can be fully enjoyed without a veil of irony, unlike the director’s so-bad-they-‘re-good projects like The Happening, Old, or his latest release, Trap.
Streaming On Hulu
REVIEW SCORE
If you’ve never seen The Sixth Sense before, you should definitely do yourself a favor and stream the supernatural horror mystery on Hulu today. The movie is widely regarded as a classic for a reason, as it touts a few top-shelf performances, some inventive narrative devices, and one of the greatest twist endings to hit the big screen since Orson Welles uttered “Rosebud.”
Login with Google