Greetings, and welcome back to October Horror Fest! Today, we are officially 2 weeks into Horror Fest! I’m feeling great, and to celebrate, I decided to watch a psychological thriller. Well, spoiler alert, that was an amazing decision. Today, we venture into a new horror genre, and into the unknown. Get ready as we watch a new film, and see how much it truly affected the Horror genre. Without further ado, sit back, relax, turn off the lights, grab some Candy and Popcorn, and let’s review…

The Sixth Sense

Our tale begins with Dr. Malcolm Crowe, and his wife, Anna Crowe. Anna goes down to her basement to fetch a bottle of wine, and it’s unusually cold. After she comes up, we meet Malcolm. Malcolm has been drinking, and he and his wife both put on sweaters for the cold. They sit together, and stare at the award that Malcolm was bestowed upon by the City of Philadelphia, and the Mayor of the city. It was for his excellence as a child psychologist, and he is extremely proud. Anna feels like she is always in second place, but she is proud of her husband. The two head upstairs, and begin to undress, before they see a broken window in the bedroom. The couple, shocked, turn around to hear another noise, and see a figure run into their bathroom. This figure seems like he has been on drugs, and begins yelling at Malcolm. He says that he failed him, and Malcom finally remembers him. His name is Vincent Gray, and he was one of his patients. Vincent then turns around, and shoots at Malcolm. Malcolm is hit in the stomach, as Vincent turns the gun on himself, and fires. Anna rushes to Malcolm’s side, and we cut to black. This is only the first 10 minutes everyone, so be prepared for a bumpy ride.

We pick up the next fall in Southern PA. Malcolm is sitting on a bench, when a young boy exits his school and runs down the block. Malcolm checks his notes, and this boy’s name is revealed to be Cole Sear. Cole’s notes say that his parents are divorced, he has anxiety, and he is socially isolated. As Cole runs, Malcolm follows. Cole’s notes remind Malcom of Vincent, the boy he couldn’t save. Cole runs into a church, and Malcolm follows him in. Cole is in one of the rows, playing with toy soldiers. Malcom sits, and tells Cole his name, and how he accidentally missed their meeting. Cole is wearing glasses with no lenses, which Malcom notices. Cole said that they were his dads, and the lenses hurt his eyes. Then, suddenly, Cole speaks latin while playing with one of his Soldiers. Cole turns to leave, after chatting with Malcolm a bit more. He asks if he will see him again, and Malcom says if it’s ok with him. Cole, before he leaves, steals a figure of Jesus Christ.

Malcolm enters his house, only to see one set of plates at the dinner table. He heads upstairs, and his wife is asleep. Malcolm then heads downstairs, and fails to open one of his doors. Malcolm then heads down to his basement, and translates the latin that Cole said. It reads, “Out of the depths, I cry to you, O lord.” 

The next day, we meet Cole’s mother. She is doing laundry, and Cole is at the breakfast table. Her name is Lynn, and she feeds her son breakfast. As she leaves Cole in the kitchen and returns to her laundry room for less than 5 seconds, she returns, and every single cabinet in the kitchen is open. Frightened, she asks if Cole was looking for something, and the boy says Pop Tarts. She’s trying to be a good mother, and says that she doesn’t think anything bad about her son. She gives him his poptarts, and he goes to meet his “friend” tommy. On the table, we see a handprint disappear.

Tommy walks with him to school, and calls him a freak. No one at his school likes Cole. After school, he enters the house, and sees Lynn and Malcolm sitting across from one another. Cole seems to be hiding something from his mom, and doesn’t tell her anything. He then talks to Malcolm, and they talk about some of Cole’s memories. Cole’s dad left, and the family got further apart. We also learn that Cole used to draw graphic drawings, a habit he stopped. He backs away from Malcolm, saying that he is nice, but he can’t help him. Cole seems hesitant to talk to his new doctor.

After the meeting, Malcolm goes to dinner with Anna. He arrives late, as usual, and tells her about his bad session with Cole. He feels Cole is so similar to Vincent, and he wants to help him. Cole has scratches on his arm, and Malcolm just wants to help. However, Anna gives him the cold shoulder. The check gets to the table, and Anna grabs it before Malcolm can. Malcolm knows he has been distant, but he feels he has a second chance. Anna says happy anniversary, and leaves her husband alone. The next day, Malcolm walks with Cole, and tells him to never believe anyone who calls him a freak.

Catching up with Lynn, we see her looking at pictures of her boy. However, she realizes that in every single one of the pictures, there is a light that Cole is looking at, ever since he was a baby. Later that day, Cole and Malcolm have another session. Malcolm tells Cole about free-association writing, where you just start writing, and words will eventually come out. Overlapped with this, we see Lynn find writings that Cole made. They are in red, and he is talking about horrible things. Before Malcolm leaves, Cole says he doesn’t want to be scared anymore.

Later that day, while Malcolm is in the basement, a man comes to the door. This man seems to be Anna’s boyfriend, and it seems she is cheating. Later that day, we met up with Cole. In school, his teacher asks about the history of the school. Cole says that people were hanged there, and his teacher is shocked. He says that isn’t right, and someone else in the class made it up to scare him. He then stares at Cole, and Cole gets scared and mad, saying how he doesn’t like when people look at him like that. He then somehow knows his teacher’s past, saying how he stuttered in his early life. Cole says, stuttering Stanley over and over again, as his teacher begins to stutter once again. He then slams his fist on the table, telling Cole to shut up, and how he is a freak.

Cole is sent to the principals, and Malcolm arrives. He plays a magic trick with Cole using a penny, which Cole sees through immediately. He finds it funny, and it sticks with the young boy. When Malcolm returns home later that night, he finds that his and Anna’s wedding video is on the T.V. This makes him happy, and he heads upstairs to see his wife. Anna is in the shower, and Malcolm sees antidepressants in the cabinet, which shocks him.

The next day, Cole is at a birthday party, and shows the penny trick to one of his “friends.” He finds it stupid, much to the disappointment of Cole. Cole finds himself sitting alone, until he sees a balloon head upstairs and hit the ceiling. Cole follows, but before he can grab it, he hears yells and dark noises from a dark room next to him. Two boys come up the stairs, and snap Cole out of his trance. They say that he should be in a play they are doing downstairs, but instead of bringing him downstairs, they trap him in the room. He begins to shout and yell, scream and wail, and the boys slowly back away. Lynn hears him from downstairs, and runs up the stairs. The door is locked as Cole’s cries continue. Once they are quiet, Lynn gets inside, and her boy is unconscious.

We pick up with Lynn and Malcolm at a children’s hospital. They say that Cole has cuts and bruises on him, and they want to interrogate Lynn because of this. They can’t answer what happened to Cole. Once Malcolm heads inside, he sees Cole in his bed. He tells a bedtime story to Cole, which is very boring. Cole tells Malcolm to include some plot twists, and he starts laughing with the young boy. Cole then notices he is sad, and his story then switches to his own, telling how he got an award, but now he and his wife are strangers. He tells Cole about Vincent, the boy he couldn’t save, and how he wants to save Cole so that he can feel like he can fix his mistake. Cole asks how the story ends, and heartbreakingly, Malcolm says he doesn’t know.

What follows is one of the most famous scenes in horror history, and the most famous from this film. He tells Malcolm that he wants to tell him his secret. Cole says to Malcolm, “He sees Dead People.” While he’s awake, he sees them everywhere. They don’t see each other, they only see what they want to see, and they don’t know they’re dead. The three rules of the ghosts. He sees them all the time. Malcolm says he won’t tell anyone his secret, and stays with the young boy until he falls asleep.

Lynn takes Cole back to his house, and when she puts him to bed, she sees the scars on his back, as she softly cries. She then calls the parents of the boys at the party, desperately searching for answers. Later that night, Cole goes to the bathroom. He runs, terrified of the ghosts. While he is in the bathroom, we see the thermostat go down, and Cole’s breath becomes frosty. When he exits, he sees one of them. It’s a woman like his mother, with bruises on her face, and huge gashes in her arm. Cole runs in an intense scene, and hides in a makeshift tent in his room. We look around, and we find the statue of Jesus, as well as hundreds of holy figures.

The next day, we see a play at Cole’s school. Malcolm says he loved the play, and that Tommy sounds like a real punk, making the boy laugh. As Malcolm is about to ask about what Cole told him, Cole freezes. We see through his eyes, and in the cafeteria of his school, we see three hanging bodies, all with deep scars. Malcolm is unable to see them, and tries to talk to the boy. Cole describes them as goosebumps, and when the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. That’s them, the boy says. Cole asks for Malcolm to please make them leave, and Malcolm says he’s working on it.

The next day, we see more of Lynn and Cole’s family dynamic. She runs with him in a shopping cart to make her boy laugh. At the house, an ad of a happy family comes on the T.V., and Cole throws his shoe at it. Lynn then grills Cole on a bumblebee pendant that was in his drawer. It was his grandmothers, and Lynn would be sad if it broke. His grandma is gone, and he feels horrible about it. He keeps saying that he didn’t move the bumblebee pendant, and Lynn has enough. She yells, telling her boy to leave the table, and saying their family really isn’t doing very well. She once again cries. As Cole leaves, he sees another young boy in his house, with a Gunshot hole in the back of his head. Cole, shaken, comes to his mom, and asks if she isn’t mad, and asks if he can sleep in her bed. The pair hug, and Lynn once again begs for Cole to tell her what’s wrong.

We finally catch up with Anna, where she attempts to sell Jewelry at her store. Going to the back of the store, Anna gets with her boyfriend, and gives him a birthday present. We hear a window smash, and we see Malcolm walking away from the scene. Shortly after, we see Malcolm say to Cole that he needs to stop being his doctor and transfer him so he can be with his family. In another heart wrenching scene, Malcolm says that he can’t answer if he believes his secret, while Cole tells him to not give up on him.

We cut to Malcolm in his basement, as he contemplates everything. He remembers Vincent, and listens to the tapes he had made with the young boy when he attempted to help him. In the tapes, we hear Vincent say that Malcolm won’t believe why he’s crying, and Malcolm remarks that it is cold in the room on the tape. Malcolm on the tape says that he has to answer a call, and leaves Vincent alone in the room briefly. Malcolm turns the volume to its highest setting, and on the tape, he hears Vincent speaking in Latin to a ghost. Vincent shared the same ability as Cole. Malcolm is shocked, and runs to the church to find his patient.

Malcolm tells Cole what he discovered, and comes up with the theory that the ghosts just want help. Malcolm says that Cole needs to listen to them, and they will go away. Malcolm isn’t sure, but he and his little friend venture into the world of the unknown to save Cole. Malcolm, walking home, sees Anna’s boyfriend drive away, and as Malcolm shouts, his boyfriend doesn’t hear it. We cut to Cole, as we hear Lynn have a nightmare about Cole. Cole comforts her in her sleep. Cole is scared as he sees a girl with vomit in his mouth in his room. He is still terrified, but tries to speak to her. The next morning, we see Cole and Malcolm on a bus in the city. Cole says that she traveled a long way to see him, and Malcolm agrees. They get to their destination. And they find a wake occurring. Cole points out the sister of the girl he saw, and ventures into the wake. He heads upstairs to the girl’s room, and Malcolm promises he won’t leave Cole alone. We learn that the girl’s name was Kyra, and she died of cancer extremely young. Cole enters the room, and gets Kyra’s favorite doll. Kyra appears from under the bed, startling the young boy, but Kyra slides a box to Cole. Cole takes this box downstairs, and gives it to Kyra’s dad. Cole and Malcolm then leave, and in the box is a VHS tape. Kyra’s father plays it, and it’s a tape that Kyra made when she was alive. It shows her playing with her dolls, until her mother comes in with her breakfast. Kyra’s mother pours a liquid into her food, and poisons her. Kyra eats it, and heartbroken, her father confronts her mother.

Outside, Cole talks to Kyra’s sister, saying that Kyra isn’t coming back, in another depressing, heartbreaking moment. The next morning, we see Cole at his school, as he talks to another dead person with horrible injuries. He isn’t afraid anymore, and is trying to help. He talks to his teacher, who he has a repaired relationship with. Cole is in his school’s play, and is playing a stableboy. The Stableboy is in the play of young King Aurthur, and Cole is able to pull the sword. Cole is able to pull the sword, and all his new friends give him a hug. It’s an amazing moment, and so deserved.

After the show, Cole celebrates with Malcolm. Cole knows that he won’t see Malcolm again, as our doctor saved Cole as he couldn’t save Vincent. The two pretend they will see each other tomorrow in another sad scene. Malcolm says that it’s time for Cole to tell his mom. Cole also suggests talking to his wife, saying that he should talk to her when she is sleeping, and says that she will listen. Malcolm then leaves his young friend. We see a car crash in the next scene, and Cole and Lynn are stuck in the traffic caused by it. Cole sees the dead person from the crash outside his window, and he finally tells Lynn this. She is taken aback, and Cole says that his grandma visits him. She was the one who moved the bumblebee pendant, and Lynn is angered at her son. Cole then tells his mom things that his Grandma said to him, and Lynn finally believes. Cole’s grandma said that she saw Lynn dance. Lynn and her mother got into a huge fight the night of her dance recital, and Lynn thought she didn’t show up. Lynn’s mother, however, truly was there, just out of sight. This is knowledge Cole couldn’t have known, and said that his grandmother said that the answer to a question Lynn gave to her was “every day.” Cole asks what question she asked at her grave, and Lynn answers. She says, “Do I make you proud.” The two hug, and the family is happy once more.

We then pick up with Dr. Malcolm Crowe. He gets to his house, and is ready to talk to Anna. The scene that follows cements this film as one of the best in horror, and one of the best movies I’ve seen as of late. However… I will not put it here. I KNOW I KNOW!!! I am very, very sorry. However, the ending of this movie needs to be experienced for yourself, and horror is subjective. I can’t take that away from you all. Please, please, please, see this movie for yourself. It is able to be rented at libraries, and on all major renting services like Apple and Amazon. I thought heavily over how I would end this, and I feel this is best. Please let me know your feedback on this ending! Also, if any of you cannot see this movie, I would be glad to let you all know about it. You can reach me at [email protected], and I will tell you all about it. I will also love to hear your feedback on Horror Fest two weeks in, and this article in particular. Thank you all so much, and I hope you enjoyed the two week special of Horror Fest! Remember, please see this movie for yourselves, the ending is worth it, I promise. Before I go, think to yourself at night, the dead exist all around you, you just can’t see them…