When the Sixth Sense was released in cinemas 25 years ago today, that sensational twist ensured that it became one of the most talked-about films in cinema, cementing director M Night Shyamalan’s status in Hollywood for good.
Bruce Willis led the way in the psychological thriller, beside Toni Collette, Donnie Wahlberg and Haley Joel Osment, who was just 10 years old during filming.
The film was released in the US on August 6, 1999, and follows the story of child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce) when he is shot by a former patient (Donnie) during a break-in.
After taking time to recover, he begins working with nine-year-old Cole Sear (Haley) – who reveals that he ‘sees dead people’, but they’re completely unaware that they’re no longer alive.
At the very end, it emerges that Malcolm actually died in the shooting, and has been dead throughout his entire time ‘treating’ Cole, with the reveal sending shockwaves through audiences around the world.
Decades on and, while the filmmaker has just released his latest masterpiece – Trap, with Josh Hartnett – we’re still recovering from those final few minutes when the truth behind the health expert’s creepy bond with his patient was unearthed.
Fans were truly rocked when the movie was released, rushing back to the cinemas in their droves to rewatch it immediately, trying to pick at the telling signs that the story wasn’t quite as it seemed.
The Sixth Sense grossed more than $672million at the worldwide box office, with reviewers raving about M Night’s efforts behind the camera – decades later and it still boasts a whopping 86% critics score, compared to 90% from the audience.
Many branded it a ‘masterpiece’, packed ‘soul-freezing’ scares and a twist that will not only ‘smack you upside the head’ but leave the hairs on the back of your neck standing up at least ‘five or six times’.
Such praise isn’t surprising to Avy Kaufman, who was in charge of casting for the Sixth Sense, and – speaking to Metro.co.uk for the 25-year anniversary – she praised the filmmaker for changing the landscape in Hollywood, while opening the door for others.
‘It’s interesting when people leave it to where the mind can just wander on its own,’ she reflected. ‘Maybe it was one of the first [ones] where everybody had to go see it again, and then that was great for Night.
‘Those movies are very curious. He opened up a big fat door in the film business.
‘I’m sure it has [held up], but I haven’t seen it probably in 20 years. I would have to look at it again, but I bet it does. With the writing and the acting, I bet it does.’
There is no denying that the final scenes of the film had everyone talking for months after the credits rolled but it sadly may not have the same effect today, with social media routinely flooded with spoilers just moments after a film’s release.
Unfortunately for Avy, while we were all blown away by the twist, she didn’t quite get the same experience as she had to read through the entire script before the movie was even greenlit, so that she could get started on building the cast, meaning that she wasn’t as ‘surprised’ as the rest of us.
While Bruce was hired ‘immediately’ – and was one of the reasons that the film even became a reality – it was a different story for the rest of the gang, who all went through a lengthy audition process to secure their roles.
The casting director embarked on a ‘big search’ to find the perfect Cole, but was left truly stunned when Haley walked through the door for a reading, knowing instantly that she had found her star.
‘We weren’t looking necessarily for the all-American, blonde hair, blue eyed young boy,’ she insisted. ‘I did a big search, I was in LA and I was just reading actors. I had done a big search with non-actors and actors, and Haley Joel Osborne walked in, and I remember reading him and going, “Oh, my God.”
‘I didn’t even give him any direction, and then he just went there – with this stare – about seeing dead people. I ran into [producer] Kathleen Kennedy’s office, and Bruce Willis was sitting there, and I was like, “I think I just found the kid!”
‘You walk into a process like that, thinking, “Will I ever find him? Where is he? Where in the world, Australia, UK?” But he was there.
‘I think I still have the big fat video player and 8-something that you put into the video. I think I still have his original reading.
‘I think if I saw Haley tomorrow, I would say the same thing to him, like, “Could you read my face when I was going, like, Whoa, I think you just did this scene perfectly.” It was an interesting casting process.’
Remained coy on who was considered before the youngster eventually got the role, she simply teased: ‘You would be surprised.’
Although he made his cinema debut in Forrest Gump, opposite Tom Hanks, it was the Sixth Sense that shot Haley to worldwide superstardom, with those four little words of ‘I see dead people’ still quoted today.
Thanks to the film, he became the second youngest star to land a best supporting actor nomination at the 1999 Oscars, before losing out to Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules – he then took home a Critics’ Choice Award and the best breakthrough trophy at the MTV Movie Awards.
At a very young age, Haley became one of the most famous faces in the world – he has continued to act into adulthood, landing roles in The Boys, Alpha House, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, and Tusk.
Unpacking his long-running career and start in Hollywood, he insisted that he had a very ‘positive’ experience as a child star, compared to others who didn’t have an easy time in the spotlight.
‘I think sometimes there’s an expectation for there to be that darkness,’ he told the Independent in 2019. ‘But I think there are a lot more stories of people who had positive experiences working as children and didn’t have that kind of cliched storyline going forward. And that’s been the case for me.
‘I realize that I’m very lucky, because there were other kids who maybe didn’t have parents that looked out for them, or worked on film sets that were not wholesome, or where they were not protected. But that was not my experience.’
In fact, Haley suggested that his run of adult projects as a younger actor actually helped things remain ‘normal’ in his personal life.
‘It intruded less on my personal life that I wasn’t in things that were being watched by my age rank,’ he added. ‘So going back to school, it wasn’t like I was on a show that everybody at school was watching at the same time, and I think it made the growing-up process a little bit easier.
‘Even going back to sixth grade after The Sixth Sense, that was a movie that my classmates were too young to see.’
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