We love to see that Disney is putting out physical 4K UHDs of M. Night Shyamalan’s hits The Sixth Sense and Signs, but we got early access to the digital copies so we couldn’t wait. Unbreakable is already out in 4K.
It’s funny how neither film feels like an older catalog movie to me, but they’re 25 and 23 years old. When I was watching them for the first times, I would have definitely considered a ‘70s movie old. And truly, since both movies were still shot on film, they are now unfortunately relics of a bygone era.
Of course, you never see The Sixth Sense the same way after the first time. So watching it again now it’s just a celebration of how cleverly Shyamalan pulled it off. A miracle of a child performance by Haley Joel Osment helps. Also, what child psychiatrist makes house calls? That should’ve been a giveaway but we accept all sorts of medical accommodations we don’t get in real life.
The Sixth Sense is full of deep shadows for 4K from the wine cellar to all the corners the ghosts hand out in. When Cole (Osment) first exists his house, he’s emerging from darkness. Yet there are vivid colors too like the red church door.
Sound is mellow but you will hear the road flare in the traffic jam oner hissing behind you.
After Unbreakable, Signs fit into Shyamalan’s oeuvre as the alien invasion movie for people who were not Will Smith in Independence Day. Just like Unbreakable was the superhero movie with no big special effects or battles.
Signs also had a message that everything happens for a reason. That required a few contrived plot points like the automobile accident, but I appreciate the sentiment and mostly agree. It doesn’t mean people are off the hook for misdeeds as if they’ll pay off one day, but Shyamalan only had 100 minutes to explain it.
Signs is set on a rural farm where there’s plenty of darkness in the fields at night and in the basement. Those scenes contrast with bright daylight where everything is vivid and clear.
The sound is much more prevalent in Signs because he’s not showing you the aliens. The score practically pokes you from behind, and the sounds of crickets, dogs barking, rustling corn and aliens scampering on the roof create the presence of extra-terrestrials.