These days, M. Night Shyamalan is something of a controversial director thanks to the varying quality of his filmography: for every provocative hit like Split, there’s a stinker like Trap or The Happening. That controversy is old and bitter enough to potentially scare audiences new and old away from the director’s work. However, Shyamalan’s breakout film The Sixth Sense is even better than you remember, and you can experience all its ghostly glory by streaming it on Hulu.

The premise of The Sixth Sense is that a recently-traumatized child psychologist (he was shot months before) has a new patient: a young boy who claims he can see dead people. At first, it sounds like the kid simply suffers from schizophrenia, but there are increasing signs that he may be telling the truth. By the time the shrink successfully bridges the worlds of the living and the dead, it’s clear that neither his life nor the boy’s will ever be the same.

I See Celeb People

The Sixth Sense is full of some big names, including Bruce Willis (best known for the action epic Die Hard) as the child psychologist who finds himself in over his head with his new patient. That patient is played by Haley Joel Osment, best known outside this film for Steven Spielberg’s ambitious film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Meanwhile, his mother is played by Toni Collette, best known outside this movie for the hit horror film Hereditary.

There are other surprising performers in this film, including Donnie Wahlberg and Mischa Barton. Mostly, though, this movie is a master class in acting for both Willis and Osment: for action veteran Willis, this movie cemented the fact that he could do more serious and nuanced roles. As for the young Osment, this movie helped to make him a bona fide star, and rightfully so…he’s one of the most talented and memorable child actors to ever grace the silver screen.

A Major Horror Hit

Additionally, The Sixth Sense is one of those horror movies with major mainstream appeal: against a budget of $40 million, it earned $672.8 million. This was enough box office to establish M. Night Shyamalan as a successful Hollywood director, and his next film was the unconventional superhero drama Unbreakable. That follow-up movie kicked off an interconnected Shyamalan universe comprised of Unbreakable, Split, and Glass, a bit like the director’s answer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

When The Sixth Sense came out, critics were collectively impressed with M. Night Shyamalan’s big breakout movie. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 86 percent, with critics praising the movie for its many spooky twists and turns. They also praised how the film blended classic Hollywood cinema sensibilities with the scary thrills modern audiences crave.

Prestigious Awards and Nominations

Additionally, The Sixth Sense took home some major genre awards, including the Bram Stoker Award (Best Screenplay), Nebula Award (Best Script), and two Saturn Awards (Best Horror Film and Best Young Actor/Actress. It was also nominated for some more prestigious awards, including two Golden Globe nominations and six Academy Award nominations. While it didn’t take home any of these trophies, the fact that it received so many major nominations was proof positive that M. Night Shyamalan had become one of Hollywood’s most visionary creators.

I saw The Sixth Sense in theaters decades ago and was immediately impressed with what Shyamalan was doing as he effortlessly transformed what could have been a rote ghost story into a meditation on grief, death, and the importance of found family. I’ve revisited the film a number of times over the years, but it felt even more resonant recently because I feel haunted by a few ghosts of my own these days. Part of the movie’s heightened appeal is the bittersweet joy of seeing Bruce Willis at his prime, knowing that we will never see this actor again after his devastating dementia diagnosis.

Will you agree that The Sixth Sense is even better than you remember, or would you rather see dead people than rewatch this twisting tale again? The only way to find out is to go haunt your couch and stream this modern classic for yourself. If you decide to watch the rest of M. Night Shyamalan’s filmography, just be warned: it takes him a long time to get past the need to give each movie its own demented twist ending.