Entertaining movie...funny, suspenseful, all ruined by horrible ending.

Rating: 3/10 (2 November 2002)

I was very disappointed by this film and surprised that M. Night Shyamalan would produce a work like it.
First off, though, the positive: I like Shyamalan's sense of humor, and it was on display in this movie as in his others. The scene when Graham comes home to find Merrill on the couch with the children, glued to the TV, and Merrill has joined the children in wearing tin-foil hatsthat was great. As was the dialogue between Merrill and the Sherrif at the dinner table regarding Scandinavian high-jumpers. During both these scenes, most in the theater laughed out loud, as did I. Likewise, Shyamalan knows how to set a scene to produce suspense. I cringed in anticipation of being startled and scared in two different scenes (the birthday party video, and the knife-reflection under the pantry door). Both these scenes were masterfully done.
I really liked the supporting cast in this movie. Merrill and the Sherrif were both solid characters and well portrayed. And the children were cute and added plenty of comic relief (the precocious child who acts like a 50-year-old trapped in a 4-year-old's body is getting to be such a trite, Hollywood stereotype, but I can't hold that against Shyamalan alone).
So, this movie made me laugh and cringe and grip the sides of my chair in preparation for a fright. And then, it made me groan. And groan. And shake my head in disgust. I don't know if Shyamalan read The Celestine Prophecy before writing this script or what, but the cheesy, someone-is-watching-over-us-all message at the end was ridiculous and simplistic. I don't know if he thought this would be an ending on par with Sixth Sense or if he was actually trying to deliever a message of faith, but either way, he ruined the movie for me. It went from a good, entertaining movie to garbagenothing more than a two-hour commercial for the Christian Church. If this is indicitive of Shyamalan's works to come, then it's a shame for the movie industry. Until this tripe, he had appeared as a bright spot in an industry increasingly formulaic and mundane.