The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense is a psychological thriller movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan. In this chilling psychological thriller, eight year old Cole Sear, is haunted by a dark secret, where he constantly receive visitors from the supernatural world.  A helpless and reluctant channel, Cole is terrified by threatening visitations from those with unresolved problems who appear from the shadows. Confused by his paranormal powers, Cole is too young to understand his purpose and too terrified to tell anyone about his torment, except child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe. As Dr. Crowe tries to uncover the ominous truth about Cole’s supernatural abilities, the consequence for client and therapist is a jolt that awakens them both to something harrowing and unexplainable.

As quoted by the director regarding the movie, “Ultimately, it’s about learning how to communicate those fears, whether it’s communication between a doctor and a patient, a husband and a wife, a mother and a son or between ourselves and loved ones who have passed on. As well all have seen, not communicating with, or keeping secrets from people we love can destroy marriages, careers, families, and even lives. That itself is horrifying.” This movie could have the typical scary input as any other horror movie, but the director has creatively scripted the movie with good messages.

It is interesting in the psychology field when we examine on how emotional responses such as fear has been evoked when we watch horror movies. Good screenwriters know that fear generates a core emotional response that actually changes the body’s chemical response for a small period in time. This shift inside an audience, in turn, creates thrilling moments in which their participation actually engages them physically with the stories on the screen. This is because horror films are emotion-based experience (Williams, 2007). Virtually everyone knows what it feels likes to be really scared, for example, pounding heartbeat, faster breathing, nervous perspiration, and butterflies in the stomach.  But whether that fright is caused by watching a nail-biting horror movie, listening to a spine-chilling story or prowling through a dark-as-night haunted house, some people actually revel in feeling frightened.

There is an interesting study done on the effects of gender roles and what each gender is “supposed” to do when watching a horror film. “There’s a great set of studies done here at Indiana where they had a male and a female to watch horror films together, and when the female was part of the experiment the male would watch it if the female appeared uncomfortable, squeamish, unhappy with the content, then the male enjoyed the movie more and rated the female more attractive” (Weaver, 2009).  And, if the man appeared frightened, the woman would enjoy the movie less, and find her companion less attractive.  Well, looks like man has to build up his guts to be a fearless prince in order to capture his lady’s heart.

 " Some magic's real " ~ Cole Sear