The Sixth Sense (1999)

Not only do I like “The Sixth Sense” because it is an excellent film; I liked it because it was old fashioned. Yes, you heard right. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy the occasional poke to the eye with a wooden splinter, but when it comes to supernatural horrors, I tend to prefer my ghostly scares on a slightly subtler scale. Back in 99’ this one kicked mucho ass at the box office, and even though it was rated PG-13 and it’s director was calling it a “spiritual psychological drama” rather than a horror film, still I applauded. Audiences also showed they still possessed some intelligence as the CGI laden shitfest remake of the similarly themed “The Haunting” bombed, while the much better crafted “Sixth Sense” came away with tons of Academy Award Nominations.

Bruce Willis plays Malcolm Crowe, a child shrink assigned to a young and apparently disturbed boy named Cole. Cole reminds Crowe of a case he had in the past, where he was unable to help a boy with similar problems. Cole’s problems lie not in his little noggin, but in the fact that he is gifted in a psychic sense, in his case, Cole “sees dead people”, and unwillingly at that. The rest of the film deals with Crowe trying to exorcise his failure of the past through Cole, and hoping to help the boy come to grips with his unusual “gift”.

Director M. Night Shyamalan opted for a moody, atmospheric and suspenseful approach, choosing to scare with shadows and sound rather than stick a giant CGI blob at the audience. The acting is dead on by everyone involved, in particular Haley Joel Osment as the first child actor I ever actually enjoyed in a motion picture. The little dude just did a kick ass job portraying this 9 yr old who sees ghosts, and worst of all, he’s afraid to tell anyone about it. Good stuff. The “surprise ending” everyone talks about really isn’t that great of a surprise to the educated genre fan with a keen eye, but it still works and was sorta cool to see in a packed theatre when everyone let out a collective sigh upon it’s revealing. An excellent flick to watch in the dark, and shows that good horror can still be made when the story and atmosphere comes first, not the special effects.