The directors of both "The Sixth Sense" and "The Others" knew that no single character can scare an audience as well as the audience can scare themselves. The directors realized that the audience's imagination would be far more frightening that anything they could put on screen. Both N. Night Shymalan, the director of "The Sixth Sense," and Alejandro Amenabar, the director of "The Others," are successful in creeping into the bones of the audience and making them shiver. Even though both films complete their objective of frightening their audience, "The Sixth Sense" is a better film because of its modern day, thrilling plot, excellent acting, and well-written script.
The "Sixth Sense" has a continuous story line that develops gradually and strategically. The plot in this movie horrifies and surprises its audience. People are thrilled and worried from the beginning of the movie. N. Night Shymalan does a great job of modernizing "The Sixth Sense" by keeping the audience in the dark to some degree and making them wonder until the end. For example, the film starts off when Malcolm, a child psychologist, is shot. The movie still keeps going, and Malcolm seems to be alive because he can communicate with people and live his life as other people do. In reality, Malcolm is already dead, and Cole Sear, a problem child whom he really wants to help, is the only one who can talk to Dr.Malcolm because Cole can see dead people with his sixth sense. But it isn't until the end that this fact is revealed to the audience. The ending is a touching resolution of the marriage between Malcolm and his wife Anna. The clear focus throughout most of the movie is on the relationship between Malcom and Cole, but at the end the focus is moved toward the relationship between the spouses. The audience is able to appreciate not just Anna's character, but Malcom's character as well no sooner than at the end of the movie.