"The Sixth Sense". Is it a "Horror" Film?
About the Movie
The Sixth Sense is a movie written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan and was released in the year 1999. The movie revolves around the life of Cole Sear (played by Haley Joel Osment), a little boy born with an abnormal ability which allows him to see and communicate with spirits of the deceased that are roaming among people of the living world. Malcolm Crowe (played by Bruce Willis) is a child psychologist that tries to help him, partially as a way of redeeming himself for failing to help a boy much like Cole previously. Although this movie has been listed on several websites as a horror film, there are other sites that deem it more as a thriller movie. So, is the movie “The Sixth Sense” a horror movie and why so?
What is a horror film?
By Wikipedia’s definition, a horror film is a film that intends to evoke fear into the viewers. Horror movies usually achieve this effect by including certain elements. These elements work because they tend to play to the most significant fears and phobias that most people have. By this definition, “The Sixth Sense” is indeed a horror film as it does have the intent from scaring the viewers and it is done through implementing those elements into the movie. There are several of these elements that the movie applies.
Fear of Death
The movie starts by applying this right off the bat. Not even 10 minutes into the movie and we already see the protagonist, Malcolm Crowe, and his wife being held at gun point by one of his past patients which he failed to help.
The patient, Vincent Gray is shown to be in a state of hysteria, banging on the walls and yelling in frustration. This makes us worry for the well-being of the protagonist as he is dealing with an unstable person, in which we have no idea what they will do next. Along with the help of eerie background noises, this fear of what will happen next is intensified, which brings us to our next element.
Spooky music
Creepy and scary music has been a common trope in scary films for as long as we can remember. Music can set the mood and invoke certain feelings in people and when done properly, this can be used as an effective way of creating suspense or even get viewers to jump out of their seats. This is most commonly seen in jump scare scenes. Eerie music is used to create an uneasy setting for the viewers, often as the protagonist is walking through a hallway. The movie uses this constantly, from scenes such as the one where Cole hides in his safe space (a self-made fort made to resemble a church) from a figure that he hears approaching his room, to scenes where he walks through a hallway towards his kitchen one night when the temperature drops drastically.
Suspense
Building suspense involves creating the feeling that something bad is about to happen. There are multiple ways that this can be achieved, one of them being music that we have already mentioned. Another thing this movie made use of is “Mise en scene”. “Mise en scene” is a French term directly translating to “putting on stage” and relates to how props and scenery are set up for the scene.
An example of this would be a scene in the movie where Cole walks through a house at a funeral. As he walks through the room of grieving people, we get a glimpse of a woman wearing red, a bright vibrant colour that stands out enough to catch our eyes in contrast to the dull low values from the generally black clothes worn by everyone else in the scene. Even as Cole passes by, the camera is positioned in a way whereby she is kept in frame, even if it is in the background.
It is later revealed that the woman in red was responsible for murdering a child for murdering her own stepchild, which satisfies the anticipation of the viewer and reveals why she was kept subtly in the scene. Furthermore, the fact that the woman was wearing red also aided in creating the feeling that something was not right.
Throughout the movie, red objects were kept in frame as a way of indicating that something bad was happening or that something was not right. The repeated use of this tactic subconsciously and subtly makes an impact on the way the viewer feels. Examples of scenes where this technique took place are the red clothes worn by his wife when Malcolm meets his wife at the restaurant, the red balloon when Cole goes upstairs at one of his friend’s birthday parties, and the red doorknob whenever Malcolm attempts to open the door of the storage room beneath his staircase.
Conclusion
The movie "The Sixth Sense" does indeed apply elements of a horror film and meet the very definition of that term. Therefore, in my opinion, it does very well classify as a "horror film".
The Sixth Sense is a movie written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan and was released in the year 1999. The movie revolves around the life of Cole Sear (played by Haley Joel Osment), a little boy born with an abnormal ability which allows him to see and communicate with spirits of the deceased that are roaming among people of the living world. Malcolm Crowe (played by Bruce Willis) is a child psychologist that tries to help him, partially as a way of redeeming himself for failing to help a boy much like Cole previously. Although this movie has been listed on several websites as a horror film, there are other sites that deem it more as a thriller movie. So, is the movie “The Sixth Sense” a horror movie and why so?
What is a horror film?
By Wikipedia’s definition, a horror film is a film that intends to evoke fear into the viewers. Horror movies usually achieve this effect by including certain elements. These elements work because they tend to play to the most significant fears and phobias that most people have. By this definition, “The Sixth Sense” is indeed a horror film as it does have the intent from scaring the viewers and it is done through implementing those elements into the movie. There are several of these elements that the movie applies.
Fear of Death
The movie starts by applying this right off the bat. Not even 10 minutes into the movie and we already see the protagonist, Malcolm Crowe, and his wife being held at gun point by one of his past patients which he failed to help.
The patient, Vincent Gray is shown to be in a state of hysteria, banging on the walls and yelling in frustration. This makes us worry for the well-being of the protagonist as he is dealing with an unstable person, in which we have no idea what they will do next. Along with the help of eerie background noises, this fear of what will happen next is intensified, which brings us to our next element.
Spooky music
Creepy and scary music has been a common trope in scary films for as long as we can remember. Music can set the mood and invoke certain feelings in people and when done properly, this can be used as an effective way of creating suspense or even get viewers to jump out of their seats. This is most commonly seen in jump scare scenes. Eerie music is used to create an uneasy setting for the viewers, often as the protagonist is walking through a hallway. The movie uses this constantly, from scenes such as the one where Cole hides in his safe space (a self-made fort made to resemble a church) from a figure that he hears approaching his room, to scenes where he walks through a hallway towards his kitchen one night when the temperature drops drastically.
Suspense
Building suspense involves creating the feeling that something bad is about to happen. There are multiple ways that this can be achieved, one of them being music that we have already mentioned. Another thing this movie made use of is “Mise en scene”. “Mise en scene” is a French term directly translating to “putting on stage” and relates to how props and scenery are set up for the scene.
An example of this would be a scene in the movie where Cole walks through a house at a funeral. As he walks through the room of grieving people, we get a glimpse of a woman wearing red, a bright vibrant colour that stands out enough to catch our eyes in contrast to the dull low values from the generally black clothes worn by everyone else in the scene. Even as Cole passes by, the camera is positioned in a way whereby she is kept in frame, even if it is in the background.
It is later revealed that the woman in red was responsible for murdering a child for murdering her own stepchild, which satisfies the anticipation of the viewer and reveals why she was kept subtly in the scene. Furthermore, the fact that the woman was wearing red also aided in creating the feeling that something was not right.
Throughout the movie, red objects were kept in frame as a way of indicating that something bad was happening or that something was not right. The repeated use of this tactic subconsciously and subtly makes an impact on the way the viewer feels. Examples of scenes where this technique took place are the red clothes worn by his wife when Malcolm meets his wife at the restaurant, the red balloon when Cole goes upstairs at one of his friend’s birthday parties, and the red doorknob whenever Malcolm attempts to open the door of the storage room beneath his staircase.
Conclusion
The movie "The Sixth Sense" does indeed apply elements of a horror film and meet the very definition of that term. Therefore, in my opinion, it does very well classify as a "horror film".
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