Clip Analysis from The Sixth Sense

The scene begins with a flare igniting showing the scene of a car/bike accident and then moving down a line of parked cars in the middle of the street while a voice is heard over the scene. *ACT - The action of the flare shows a visual representation of a scene starting. The flare ignites and the scene begins. **HER - there is an enigma of moving the narrative forward as the camera pans past all of the parked cars. "I'm ready to communicate with you now. Tell you my secrets," says the boy in the car, whose voice you've been hearing narrate so far. **The voice overheard is creating suspense, and as the scene moves into the car with the enigma grows as the boy explains to his mother that he want's to communicate his secrets.
*Once the action of the camera moving inside the car establishes the remainder of the scene the **enigma must be answered.
"Someone got hurt. A lady. She died," said the boy to his mother. She asks if he can see the accident. The boy answers, "She's standing next to my window." ***SEM - the symbolic code during this dialogue represents the ghosts that only the boy can see. He later proves this point by referencing a vivid memory of his mother that only she could recall.
"They want me to do things for them," said the boy. ****SYM - this symbolic meaning of the ghosts asking the boy to help them is something only he knows the answer to at the time and is not explained until later in the movie.
Once the boy explains to this mother about the dance recital and her mother *****REF - which is a cultural reference, because some time periods or cultures would not recognize a dance recital as something young women would participate in - he shares with her an answer that only she would know the question being asked. "Everyday," the boy says, to which the question was "Do I make her proud."
This scene does an excellent job setting up what is to be a suspenseful movie. *Clearly, the first camera movements help set up the momentum of the plot beginning while the first **enigma is the dramatic pauses in the boys statements and questions to his mother. ****The ghosts that the viewer is informed of are selectively shown and not fully explained leaving room for the plot to grow.
These elements are what make The Sixth Sense a traditional suspenseful film and use the right tools to keep an audience engaged.