Group 1 here. I don’t think I knew anything about the movie when I went to see it with a couple of friends. I don’t keep up with movie/entertainment news and I rarely go to the movies at all, so I had no idea there was a twist or anything. I also don’t really feel the need to analyze movies while I’m watching them - I try to just go along with them and follow the story they’re telling me. I can’t remember ever figuring out the twisty ending of any movie (I was shocked by The Usual Suspect and Fight Club, for instance), except The Others, but that’s only because I’d heard that it was so reminiscent of The Sixth Sense, so I figured it had to have a similar twist.
Group 2.
I was in a Bible Study in that window of time when The Sixth Sense was still new enough for (some) people to be sensitive about spoiling others, but not so new that many people who intended to see it probably hadn’t.
Probably about the same time as the movie coming out on DVD, but maybe not.
Anyway, someone in the Bible Study wanted to use it as an illustration of something–probably one new fact changing your perceptions of something . . .
He mentioned the title, stopped and asked if we’d all seen it, asked if those of us who hadn’t seen it were likely to, after getting denials, told us the twist.
I did see it later, having become more curious after learning what the twist was.
I saw it without really knowing anything about it. My wife and I got to the reveal without a clue and had great fun afterwards backtracking through all the clues. One of my all time favorite movie outings.
A short while later I was on a train and a group of high school students were discussing the movie. One of the boys was getting a bit close to revealing the climax of the movie and one of the girls said, “Don’t give away the twist.”
He looked genuinely puzzled and said, “What twist?” Someone said something and he said, "You don’t mean that Bruce Willis is dead do you?" Everyone groaned and those that hadn’t seen it began to abuse him. He seemed surprised, “How was that a twist? They showed him get shot and die.” When others mentioned that seeing him outside the boy’s house they figured he got better, the kid admitted that the thought had never crossed his mind. He had assumed Willis would start haunting the kid in standard ghost movie fashion.
This was me. I was fortunate in having no one spoil it for me, and I’m one of those people whose minds doesn’t race around trying to outwit authors and directors, I just soak up the entertainment mindlessly and get surprised by all the plot twists and never guess whodunnit 
I’m a poor #2. And the spoilering happened completely by accident. I was working in a restaurant and happened to be walking past a table where two women were discussing the ending. Boo.
I went in unspoiled and was a #1 big-time.
Funny thing, right before we left for the screening I was in the bathroom and a friend of my girlfriend’s daughter says, “I couldn’t believe he was dead the whole time”.
So, I missed being spoiled by about ten seconds (thank gawd for my huge bladder) and she got spoiled about two minutes before we left to see it.
-Joe
Group 1.
I hadn’t seen previews or anything. I was living by myself at the time and decided to catch a movie. Went to the theater to see what was playing and saw a spooky movie with Bruce Willis. Great. I love spooky movies and Bruce is a fav of mine.
Was totally surprised. Never saw the twist coming. As it started to play out at the end I was saying “No Way!”
Still one of my all-time favorite movies.
1½. I had read something like “Bruce Willis is dead people” but didn’t really pay attention to it.
+1
I really loved the twist in 6th sense, and had been looking forward to seeing signs and was very disappointed as it was crap =(
I was spoiled on The Crying Game by a Jon Carroll column in the San Francisco Chronicle, which rather aggressively spilled the beans when the film was still relatively new. Memorable quote, with reference to the audience reaction:
“I like a good penis gasp as much as the next man…”
Another unspoiled #1. I had no idea there was a twist, and was completely blown away by it. Had to go back and watch it again, so I could find all the neat little things that I should have noticed the first time.
I don’t try that hard to suss out surprises, though–I like to be surprised by them. Really glad I got to see this one before the spoilers got hold of it.
I never saw it at all, but figured out the twist from the trailer. I’m not usually that astute.
I liked Signs up until the scene with the video footage of one of the aliens. Then it steeply went downhill (especially when it’s disclosed that the aliens’ weakness is water).
Incidentally, the ridiculously lame twist to Signs has convinced some viewers of the movie that the real twist is the alien invasion is a dream by Mel Gibson’s character that enables him to get his faith back.
#1, definitely no clue. But that could be partly due to sleep deprivation. My husband and kids went off to a family reunion, but I was stuck home because we bred pugs, and unfortunately a bitch had rejected her litter, so I was stuck bottle feeding them every forty-five minutes round the clock. I rented a bunch of movies to help keep me awake, and that was one of them. I had to rewind it and watch it again because I couldn’t believe it.
Wife and I were #1s. And enjoyed it.
2, thanks to Andy Richter blurting it out on Late Night.
I’m in Group 2. But I was spoiled long before it came out: A friend of mine was working in the film office in Philly when M. Knight was preparing to film the thing. He got us a copy of the script. We thought it was the hokiest ending ever.
I was the one that posted it. It was on the bootleg DVDs, which have covers designed by…well, who knows? Anyway, I think the movie had a real title over there as well.
I think “Ghost Dad” with Bill Cosby had a weird name too. Something like “Daddy’s a Corpse!” o
Mrs Cad and I saw it at different times. When I got back from watching it, she asked me if I was surprised at the ending. I nonchalantly said no. She asked how I knew and I told her that when Bruce Willis is waiting for his first interview with Cole, he is reading a newspaper and on the front it said “Noted Psychologist Killed” She was so excited by this tidbit that she told everyone she knew who had seen the movie this reveal and how clever she was to have seen it.
About two weeks she found out I was talking out my @$$ and he was reading Cole’s file. She was most displeased.
Similarly, I had it ruined for me by Craig Kilborn on his late night show, while the movie was still in theaters. I was livid. He said something like, “now comes the part of the show where I ruin the ending of The Sixth Sense - Bruce Willis is dead!” I was grabbing for the remote, but alas, I wasn’t fast enough.