Conflicted thoughts about “spoilers”:

On the one hand, yes, too much is made of them, and a movie that’s worth watching at all is worth watching more than once, i.e., worth watching knowing what’s coming…

…On the other hand, discovery is a particular form of and element of appreciation—and the best way to discover what a movie has to offer is by watching the movie.

I just finished rewatching THE SIXTH SENSE with various family members. We’ve all seen it before. It holds up brilliantly to multiple rewatchings. There’s a lot going on beyond The Twist…

…but every time I watch it, I’m grateful to have had seen it in theaters on opening weekend, not knowing there was a twist at all.

That first cold viewing is vital to my ongoing appreciation of the film. Every time I watch it, I appreciate how it worked on me that first time.

The opening sleight of hand tricked me so utterly that after Malcolm is shot and we find him watching Cole reading his notes, I turned to my father and whispered, “The whole point of that prologue was motivation. It’s to establish his need for redemption by helping this boy.”

Which, of course, is exactly what Shyamalan wanted me to think. He used my familiarity with narrative conventions I’d seen in any number of other films to hide his big secret in plain sight.

As the film unfolded, I found it satisfying on almost every level. As the arcs wrapped up (Cole conquering his fear of ghosts and proneness to injury, communicating with his mother, etc.), I felt the end approaching—but it seemed there was one problem that couldn’t be fixed.

The unfixable problem, the corner it seemed the filmmaker had painted himself into, was Malcolm’s failing marriage. There just wasn’t time to bring that storyline to a satisfying conclusion. (Heh heh heh)

I will never forget the wide-eyed anticipation I felt when Anna drops something and we hear it rolling under the chair.

On some level it hit me that whatever was rolling under the chair would somehow, impossibly, explain everything—would resolve the seemingly unsolvable problem.

And then, magnificently, it did. The ring…Anna’s hand, still wearing her rings…Malcolm’s hand with no ring…and then I got it. It hit me so hard I convulsed in my theater seat and sucked in half the air in the theater.

Obviously my experience of the film today is completely different from that first viewing 22 ago. And there are many things I love about the film beyond The Twist. Cole’s relationship with his mother, for one. And the way he learns to navigate living in a world of ghosts.

But I savor that first viewing, because I feel like the film worked for me exactly as Shyamalan wanted it to work. I appreciate how he perfectly structured his trap even as I appreciate all the things about the film that go beyond that first-viewing gotcha. (end)