Posted: September 07, 1999 at 15:58:01: by Nicholaus Clements
I attended the Sixth Sense last night (which by the way makes me wonder why we don't have movies called "the Second Sense" that would have everything to do with the sense of hearing. But then "second sense" also means some kind of extra sensory perception). This movie seems quite Lovecraftian although there is nothing Cthulhic about it. But if Lovecraft could have gone to that film, I think he would have enjoyed it very much.Because... (Here's some spoiler space)
1. It has a small boy who wears a tie and who sees gruesome dead people at every turn. Lovecraft would have identified with this character.
2. There is a sense of finite history and realism throughout the film. For example, when the history teacher says "Can anyone guess what this building was 100 years ago?" Lovecraft would have enjoyed the continued presence of history that the boy sees due to his sixth sense. 3. The plot twist at the end is truly well-crafted. It has the effect that Lovecraft tried to achieve in so many of his stories including "The Outsider," "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" or "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" wherein the narrator/storyteller turns out to be someone other than what we think. We then must go over the story again and a certain retroactive horror comes into effect. Overall, I don't think of the Sixth Sense as a must-see, but I do think Lovecraft would have evaluated it as a "fine film."
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