Film analysis#2 The Sixth Sense
This film is one of the great supernatural horror films I have seen ever before and I believe most of us have viewed this great film. What makes it a great film are because: 1) it really deals with the horror scenes subtly and skillfully based on the deliberate pacing and sobriety; 2) the use of shots and editing techniques really bring the audience to the story psychologically. The two topics I’d like to discuss here is the mise-en-scene and the editing and shots employed in The Sixth Sense.
From the perspective of mise-en-scene, M. Night Shyamalan has makes the staging and style of the film so elaborated that help highlight the horror genre of the film. The general setting of the story aims to tell the audience the story is happening in urban Philadelphia during the early 21st century. M. Night Shyamalan has particularly made the costume of Kyra’s mother so impressive and symbolic. In the funeral scene, Kyra’s mother wears the red costume that makes her look stands out the crowd in many scenes of the film and especially in the funeral scene. Visually, it forms a sharp contrast between Kyra’s mother and others who all wear black costume, giving a deeper message to the audience about Kyra’s death and adding some weird and horrifying atmosphere to the story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqW9iC0DAHM
The use of lighting has been a big part of this movie. For example, in the scene of Malcolm and his wife’ wedding anniversary and when he returns home when her wife asleep, there uses low-key lighting that heavily focuses on the lamp. This use of lighting makes the cold and sad emotions of the characters augmented and the clues for Malcolm’s death so invisible and powerful.
While using shots, M. Night Shyamalan makes their shots to convey varied messages and emotions to the audience. For example, in the magic scene when Malcolm talks to Cole, there uses a tracking shot that moves the camera to Malcolm. While moving, the audience only sees Malcolm on the middle of the screen talking to someone in the chair. When the shot shifts to Cole, Shyamalan makes the audience a little confused about this “magic” moment and therefore pave a deeper clue for the existence of Malcolm. Then, Shyamalan uses a lot of continuity editing in many scenes to create a sense of smooth and flow for the story. For instance, in the scene of Cole is trapped by the other two boys, the shots of Cole’s mother’s going upstairs create a high level of continuity that makes the body actions of the character natural. Another clue for the continuity editing is when the shots of the glass painting inside of the church resemble the ending of the last scene where the toy soldiers are shot. That elaborates the visible continuity editing that seems to assume a sense of time passage based on the subtle dynamic shots.
I also noticed the zoom shot in the funeral scene when Kyra’s father sits in front of the tape. Shyamalan seems to use a dolly shot that makes the facial expression of the man visually moves closer to the audience, which allows the audience to observe the emotional dynamics of Kyra’s father while looking and hearing the sound of the poison being poured to Kyra’s soup. Also, the 180-degree rule is employed in a lot of dialogue scenes such as the dialogue between Cole and Malcolm in the church as well as Malcolm and Cole’s mother talking in the living room about Cole. That maintains the left-right position of the characters and therefore make the audience clearly see how the characters look at each other.
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