PSY317 Lee Yun Qi (B1200551): #009 The Sixth Sense (1999)

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”

― H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

Fear is one of the emotion that universally shared by all living beings. We, as human, are afraid of things either real or imaginary, perhaps because our brain and mind have the capacity to imagine things in relation to fear. This involves the unknown and unexpected consequences that may relate to dangers and undesirable outcome (Cao, Han, Hirshleifer & Zhang, 2009). By playing with emotion to elicit fear, "The Sixth Sense" presents the idea of human's fear to the unknown and uncertainty with "things we can't see" and associated it with music, loud sound, sudden incident in most unexpected scenes.

The story line and the way how the actors present the emotion of fear connects and leads the emotion of the audience. Dr Malcolm is a child psychologist who dedicated to help his 9 years old patient, Cole, as he thinks that Cole is suffering delusions. The audience first could not understand what Cole is facing but he seems really afraid of something, first elicit fear of unknown among the audience in Cole's situation.

When Cole's expression started to change.
Deep down in my heart: Oh child, what the h*** had happened to you!
Did those ugly scary "thing" look at you straight to your eyes like that?!
*started to imagine potential scary scene*

As the story goes by, the audience get the idea about Cole's ability to see dead people, how terrified of those ghosts appearance can be, they started to feel more and relate to Cole's fear. This involves the emotion connection between the audience and Cole. They can feel his helplessness and fear as a little child who has to face all the "scary things" when no one would believe and feel as the same as he did. The fear of unknown still arises among the audience in this stage because the audience have no idea about what the ghost will do to this innocent child (ghost and demons are always perceived as unpredictable, negative and harmful to human being). Furthermore, associated with creepy background music or sudden loud noise, it evokes more fear because in human mind, that considered as an "unwanted sound" which indicates unknown, unexpected danger and undesirable consequences (Cao, Han, Hirshleifer & Zhang, 2009). Especially in the scene of Cole is locked in the wardrobe when no one knows what is happening inside but only hear Cole's fearful loud screaming.

However, after Cole made the decision and confronted his fear with Dr Malcolm's suggestion, the "truth" seems revealed and the ghosts did not appear as scary and unpredictable as in the beginning of the film. For example, a scene when Cole talks to a ghost behind the stage and a ghost of road accident standing beside Cole, it created a shock for a moment instead of fear.

See the fear and helplessness in Cole's eyes

The colour tone also play important role in elicit fears in film production. The colour tone used in the film is darker and dimmer, essentially present the gloomy feeling in the entire movie. Brighter colour tone is more likely to be presented when there is no scary involved, such as the scenes about Malcolm and Anna, Malcolm walking down the street with Cole, Malcolm's casual conversation with Cole and almost at the end of the film.

According to Schachter-Singer Theory, human experience emotion by interpreting bodily response consistent with the situation at certain moment (Schachter & Singer, 1962). As the audience is expected to watch a horror movie, schemas in their mind prepared them to feel the emotion of fear, so the bodily response is interpreted according to this situation. For example, my heart beat increases when I watch this movie can be interpreted as fear, but it would be totally different than fear if my heart beat increases when I am expecting a romantic date.

Another interesting theory that explains why people like to watch horror movie despite knowing that it is scary. Opponent- Process Theory suggested that human experience of emotion disrupts body state of balance and emotions have their opposing counter parts (Solomon & Corbit, 1974). For example, the opposite of happy is sad, the opposite fear is relief. Human might feel the fear before jumping off the ledge in Bungee Jump, but feel sense of relief after jumping off. So, it can be used to explain the audience like the pleasant feeling of relief and "know the truth" after experiencing fear by watching horror movie.

References
Cao, H. H., Han, B., Hirshleifer, D, & Zhang, H. H. (2009). Fear of the unknown: Familiarity and economic decisions. Review of Finance 2011(15), 173–206. doi: 10.1093/rof/rfp023

Schachter, S. & Singer, J. E. (1962). Cognitive, social and physiological determinants of emotional sate. Psychological Review, 69, 379-399.

Solomon, R. L. & Corbit, J. D. (1974). An opponent-process theory of motivation: I. Temporal dynamics of affect. Psychology Review, 81, 119-145.

Pictures from Google
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+sixth+sense&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=667&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiP4NKc9L7LAhUMCo4KHSt-ApQQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=m1-RoBWJmpOE5M%3A

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+sixth+sense&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=667&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiP4NKc9L7LAhUMCo4KHSt-ApQQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&tbs=rimg%3ACZtfkaAViZqTIjgh_1hf3CpRbf6LgZs6_1-kESHdOEw9JznGzsrwpFLDYbA5-sa9v1g6fdisHPy-pSHPGeSfv2I5KUTyoSCSH-F_1cKlFt_1EbHyKyqx4-fuKhIJouBmzr_16QRIR81Q6PvZMddkqEgkd04TD0nOcbBGkKr7518EylCoSCeyvCkUsNhsDEUmdffyOkek8KhIJn6xr2_1WDp90R4ZIaLpr8n3cqEgmKwc_1L6lIc8RGV8RMUz5qe3CoSCZ5J-_1YjkpRPERcNw3wPYSxf&q=the%20sixth%20sense&imgrc=isHPy-pSHPGyqM%3A

PSY317 Lee Yun Qi (B1200551)

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

#009 The Sixth Sense (1999)

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”

― H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

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