The Story Archive

The Sixth Sense

M. Night Shyamalan · 1999 CE · Film · Modern / American · Contemporary

A Philadelphia child psychologist, shaken by a former patient who broke into his house, takes on a withdrawn nine-year-old whose mother cannot account for the scratches on his arms or why he hides in a church. The boy eventually says what he has been seeing. Built on suggestion rather than shock, it earned most of its enormous run on word of mouth and made the late-reveal thriller a studio staple.

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Attributes

Genre
PsychologicalHorrorMystery
Theme
Death & MortalityIsolation & AlienationGuilt & Conscience
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
GhostInnocentMentor
Plot structure
MysteryDual World
Symbol / motif
The GhostThe HouseThe Threshold
Conflict
vs Supernaturalvs Self
Mode / tone
GothicElegiac
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues