¶ … supernatural elements of film and story can be both different and similar. Movies and novels that portray elements of horror and paranormal like ghosts and demons do so in a way that evokes suspense, fear, and a sense of surreal. The movie, The Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shyamalan and the novel, The Demonologist written by Andrew Pyper shows ghosts and the supernatural as a means of communication from the afterlife or "other side" and the waking life. Although The Sixth Sense focuses on ghosts and The Demonologist focuses on demons, the way in which the writer/director forms the story share similar concepts.
Pyper creates a protagonist in David who is a skeptic of the existence of the supernatural. As explained on page 7: "A demon expert who believes evil to be a manmade invention." (Pyper 7) His skepticism is born of that of never having truly witnessed an occurrence of the supernatural and believing the "demons" of the world are merely just the evil behavior of people. Throughout the story his skepticism dwindles as he begins to see more and more of these "rare" occurrences and questions his initial beliefs.
A book reviewer states Satan who knew of David in the story as a skeptic, wished to prove to the world of the existence of demons and convince them, much like he did David to believe...
"Also implied is that the big daddy of demons, Satan, wants to use David as an emissary to prove his existence to a doubting globe, with the recorded video of the possessed man as proof" (Maloney). The review does a good of illustrating the growing belief David gains as he moves deeper into the chasm, and slowly but surely gains evidence that challenges his initial skepticism much like the skepticism originally felt by Dr. Malcolm Crowe in The Sixth Sense is a common link between both works. Many people attest to the belief of demons and ghosts, however many more believe them to be fake. These two works try to prove at least to the characters within their respective stories that the supernatural is real.
One of the few times Pyper mentions ghosts in the book is when the character stretches. "I get up to stretch my legs. The jet humming and whistling, soothing as a mechanical womb. This, and the sleeping passengers on either side of me, give the odd impression that I am a transatlantic ghost, hurtling through space…" (Pyper 39) Ghosts unlike the demons explained in the novel, are given very little time with just a feeling or movement describing a ghost. The Sixth Sense makes it feel as though ghosts are a part of everyday life unbeknownst to the waking world whereas here in The Demonologist, it…
