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3“Twist Blindness”: The Role ofPrimacy, Priming, Schemas, andReconstructive Memory in a First-Time Viewing of The Sixth SenseDaniel BarrattIntroductionThe main thing which struck me when watching The Sixth Sense (1999)a second time round was the hospital scene in which child patient ColeSear (Haley Joel Osment) reveals that he can “see dead people” – deadpeople who “don’t know they’re dead” – while the camera is focusing inon Dr Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis). In this scene, the writer and directorM. Night Shyamalan effectively waves the film’s celebrated narrative twistin the face of the viewer. Considering the explicit nature of both the dialogueand the method of filming – for example, Cole’s statement that thesedead people “walk around like regular people” is immediately followed bya close-up of Malcolm – why does the first-time viewer fail to make theconnection between Cole’s revelation and Malcolm’s situation? Withregard to this particular scene, Frank Marshall, one of the producers of thefilm, states: “I actually thought we had overdone it. I actually thought we’regiving too much away here.” 1 Presumably, however, test audiences failedto pick up on the scene’s implication. In this chapter, I am interested inexplaining why the average viewer does not, contrary to Marshall’s fear,pick up on this type of clue first time round, thereby remaining “blind”to the film’s narrative twist. This is where the notions of primacy, priming,and schema – referred to in the title – fit into the picture.My second point is more speculative and relates to The Sixth Sense’s advertisedstatus as “A Real ‘Must See Twice’ Film.” At the film’s conclusion, weare presented with three flashbacks: the first features Cole’s revelation; the