It stars Bruce Willis as a child psychologist whose patient (Haley Joel Osment) claims he can see and talk to the dead.

[3] The film established Shyamalan as a preeminent filmmaker of thrillers and introduced the cinema public to his traits, most notably his affinity for twist endings.

He feels he must help Cole in order to rectify his own failure to help Vincent and to reconcile with Anna, who has become distant and cold and is suffering from depression.

At a birthday party, when bullies see that Cole is terribly scared of a cupboard, they lock him in it, causing him to scream in terror about someone seemingly inside with him.

The tape reveals Kyra's stepmother poisoning her food, alerting her father to the reality of her death and saving her younger sister from the same fate.

David Vogel, then-president of production of Walt Disney Studios, read Shyamalan's spec script and loved it.

[7] During the casting process for the role of Cole Sear, Shyamalan had been apprehensive about Osment's video audition, saying later he was "this really sweet cherub, kind of beautiful, blond boy".

[15] Examples include the door of the church where Cole seeks sanctuary; the balloon, carpet, and Cole's sweater at the birthday party; the tent in which he first encounters Kyra; the volume numbers on Crowe's tape recorder; the doorknob on the locked basement door where Malcolm's office is located; the shirt that Anna wears at the restaurant; Kyra's mother's dress at the wake; and the shawl wrapped around the sleeping Anna.

[14] All the clothes Malcolm wears are items he wore or touched the evening before his death, including his overcoat, his blue rowing sweatshirt and the different layers of his suit.

Though the filmmakers were careful about clues of Malcolm's true state, the camera zooms slowly towards his face when Cole says, "I see dead people."

Buena Vista International acquired distribution rights in the United Kingdom, Latin America, Australia, and Singapore.

[18] After a six-month online promotion campaign,[19] The Sixth Sense was released on VHS and DVD by Hollywood Pictures Home Video on March 28, 2000.

[27] During Labor Day, it made $6.3 million, making it the biggest September Monday gross, holding that record until it was beaten by It in 2017.

The site's critical consensus reads: "M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense is a twisty ghost story with all the style of a classical Hollywood picture, but all the chills of a modern horror flick.

[39] In his review for the Los Angeles Times, John Anderson wrote that the script was "clever" and called Osment's performance the best of the year from a child actor.

[citation needed] In 2024, Looper ranked it number 49 on its list of the "50 Best PG-13 Movies of All Time," writing that with the film's success, "filmmakers and audiences alike began to expect the unexpected, leading to a resurgence of interest in psychological thrillers and supernatural mysteries.

[44][47] The film received three nominations from the People's Choice Awards and won all of them, with lead actor Bruce Willis being honored for his role.

[44][49] James Newton Howard was honored by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for his composition of the music for the film.