Isabel Wong Textual Analysis

Film Name: The Sixth Sense
Sub Genre: Ghost

  Throughout the whole film, there are various types of camera shots to illustrate the threats ahead and make the audience thrilled. For example, there are a lot of close ups of Cole's footstep in a dark area, this makes me wonder what is in front of Cole and what will happen next and such shots can create the fear of the audience directly because unknown makes people anxious. There are also many low angle shots, long shots and POV shots in the film, for instance, the film tends to show Cole's eyesight when he is walking towards where the spooky objects are. POV shot is commonly used in horror film since it makes the whole scene seems real to the audience, the audience may feel like experiencing the whole thing with the character or they may assume they are the characters themselves. Besides POV shot, the film contains quite a lot of long shots, like when Cole is walking through the long corridor in the dark, the long shots create the vulnerable image of Cole because the use of long shots particularly shows the relatively small body of Cole which makes him looks weak.
  There is one part that Cole meets the sick girl in his own tent, right before he goes back to his tent and tries to communicate with the girl, the film made use of various kinds of camer shot to create the thrilling atmosphere, there is canted angle-long shot which is showing the dark corridor, then there is a POV shot whiching pretending the eyesight of Cole on the dark living room, then it comes to a close up of Cole's fear face, the combination of these camera shots creates the fear of the audience accurately.
 
  The film made use of dim light and dark lighting to portray the mysterious and scary atmosphere. When Cole meets the sick lighting in front of his tent, it is almost entirely dark in the background whilst there is only some red light from the tent reflects on Cole's fear face, such lighting makes the audience feel scary.

  Similar to most horror film, the film has tense and horrifying background music in the opening with violins creating some screeching sound which makes the audience chill. When Cole meets the suicide woman, silence in the scene creates an extreme fear to the audience, when the woman walks pass Cole, there is suddenly a "Bang" sound which makes people jump.

  The scary parts of the film are usually located at corridors, stairs where something can hide at an invisible dark corner. At the beginning of the film, Anna is at the dark liquor cabinet picking red wine, since it is located at the bottom of the house, and seems it's hard to grab enough light, such environment creates the fear of the audience and makes them wondering if there will be anything coming out at the next moment. Since there are plenty dark corners in the liquor cabinet, it leaves enough rooms for something to hide so it further makes the audience fear of something is going to come out.

  The film focuses on a lot of props to create fear, it gives many close up shots on the things that sharpen the personalities of the characters. For example, there are close up shots on a dim light bulb, candles to illustrate the mysterious atmosphere by emphasizing the dim light. The tiny statues of Jesus, Maria give to evidence of Cole can connect with the paranormal objects.

  The film has followed several conventions of my sub-genre, including thing moving on its own where we can find the example in the part Cole meets the sick girl in his tent. The haunted house is even implied to this film as there are quite a lot paranormal encounters of Cole happen in his own house. Also, the film made use of horrible make up to show how the ghosts are killed by showing their bleeding head, pale face etc.

  I think the scariest part of the film is Cole meets the sick girl in his tent. Because at the very beginning of the part, Cole is hiding inside the "safety zone" he assumed, but suddenly the clips on the tent remove automatically and the tense background music gives evidence that something is going to show up which makes my heart beats faster and faster. Then, Cole runs out of the tent and walks pass the dark corridor, the combination of various camera shots creates the fear that makes the audience can hardly breath, there are close up of Cole's fear face, canted angle-long shot of the dark corridor and even POV shot of Cole, these camera shots trap the audience to watch what is going to happen next and unable them to escape from the scene even if they're terrified.