The Sixth Sense: Symbolism of RED

I was taken on the craziest ride this weekend. It was brilliant. There were so many twists and turns, ups and downs, and so many beautiful things to see. No I am not talking about any over the top rollercoaster from Six Flags or Disney World; Im talking about the thiller movie, The Sixth Sense.

Written and directed by M. Night Shayamalan, my utmost applause goes to him for this revolutionary masterpiece.   Never before have I been left wondering and wondering about what is going to happen next, and rarely have I been completely surprised and tricked by the ending results of a film.  Has there ever been a time where a film moved you or blew your mind so much that you couldn’t stop thinking about it? Well I found myself thinking about this film for days. What was it about this film that was different than anything else Ive seen? It took me some time to distinguish it but I found several reasons of why is so great and why M. Night Shayamalan is known as one of the best in the industry. However there is just one factor that stuck out to me that is pure genius!

The SYMBOLISM of RED

The color red has a profound effect in this movie. It alone symbolizes fear, danger, blood, energy, strength, and power. It is known to have the effect of increased heart rate and breathing, as well as heightened emotion without you entirely realizing it. So that being said, do you think it is coincidence that we always saw the color red before we saw a ghost? I doubt it, in fact for that reason I believe that it is why we never see red in any other scenes besides those particular ones.  They symbolized that a dark presence was around and that something was about to happen. It subliminally prepared us for something tragic and unexpected. It ultimately represented the spirit world and we see it in many different ways throughout the movie.

1                                  1.  Cole is wearing a red sweater to a kids party, where he was drawn to the voices he heard coming form the top of the staircase that lead him to his terrifying encounter with the entity in the attic. Also during that same sequence, as he was walking up the staircase we see a red balloon rise to the light at the top, which could symbolize that a spirit has gone toward the light to God with the spiral staircase representing the “staircase to heaven” and journey of life.

                  2.  When Cole and Malcolm attend the funeral of Kyra, a young girl who just                         passed away, we immediately notice the red jacket and lipstick that the  mother is wearing, which symbolizes death as well as evil, for we eventually find out that she was the one who killed her daughter.  Also the box that Cole carries down after his encounter with the Kyra which contained a tape that was wrapped with red ribbon which held the purpose to show that we were about to see something bad. And seeing the red cards from friends and family initially give us the foreshadowing that Cole is going to see a dead person.

             3. From the very first scene of the movie with Cole, we see him immediately leave school and retreat to a church which had two big red doors at the entrance.  This seemed very ironic to me at first because a church is known to be one of the most spiritual places to be.  However Cole liked the positivity of  the church and the comfort it provided by being in the closest place to God.  In addition to, once he goes home, Cole has a red tent in his room that he uses to  protect himself from the spirits chasing him, which is occupied with many religious figures he uses in hopes to repel them.  However, like always, the color red represents death and spirits and attracts even attracts them, yet it also represents safety, hence the Red Cross and a lifeguards.

            4. Besides coaching Cole through his disability, he is also trying to fix the mistakes he made with his wife.  He wants her to know how much he loves her.  Every time we see her, she is also wearing the color red, go figure.  Though I must be honest and say that I did not pick up on this one until     someone pointed it out. But its true. The shade of reds aren’t as bright as all the other ones were. They were either soft or very dark and not as obvious.   This reflects her mourning and depression that she is feeling from the losing her husband.

 5. As a young boy in distress, the person he always wanted to turn to was his mom but she didn’t understand what was going on with him and would get tempered and upset when he had an episode.  She was never seen wearing any red at all in the movie until the end.  Since she never accepted his reality and was never associated with Cole’s sixth sense she therefore has no connection to the spirit world at all. However, at the end of the movie when her and Cole were caught in a traffic jam due to a fatal car accident, that was the first time we saw her wear red. This is significant because that was also the same moment when Cole revealed to her his secret of seeing dead people and she finally accepted it, which is why that scene was so moving.

The color red was a major influence on this movie and M. Night Shayamalan so perfectly made it such a crucial part of our experience as well.  This is by far one of my favorite films in the sense of wonderful cinematography, writing, characters, and symbolism, and I look up to this film as I hope to be able to create something of such standards.