The "I See Dead People" meme originates from a chilling line delivered by child actor Haley Joel Osment in the 1999 supernatural thriller, "The Sixth Sense." In the film, Osment's character, Cole Sear, confides to his therapist (played by Bruce Willis) that he sees ghosts. The iconic phrase is uttered with a mixture of fear, confusion, and a weighty realization. As a meme, it's widely used to express a sudden, often uncomfortable, dawning realization about something unusual, out of place, or subtly wrong that others might not perceive. It conveys a sense of shock or revelation, implying that the observer is seeing something that shouldn't be there or is unexpectedly obvious to them alone. It can be applied humorously or seriously to highlight an uncomfortable truth or an oddity in various situations.