Excellent Psychological Horror Piece

Rating: 10/10 (14 August 2001)

In a horror market filled with useless gore and pointless plots, it's a breath of fresh air to see a quality scary movie. Looking back on the film, there wasn't an abundance of frightening scenes. Instead of the usual "visible" ghost activity, the writer/director Alejandro Amenabar relied on an eerie atmosphere; you get the feeling something supernatural is occurring, without being shown what "it" is. There are no flashy special effects or CGI monsters. At times, the expressions on the faces of the characters, heightened by an eerie soundtrack, composed by Amenabar himself, are enough to chill the viewer.
If you have read any review of this film, you know it has a surprise ending. Thus, you may spend the entire duration of the film trying to add things up and figure it out before they reveal it. I did this, and managed to only figure out part of the surprise. The rest shocked me.
Fans of Polanski and Shyamalan will love this movie. Many critics have compared it to the "Sixth Sense", but I don't think the two come close to eachother, plotwise. They are related only in the use of atmosphere to scare the audience.
This is probably not a movie for the "Hollywood Blockbuster" lover. It requires a lot of thought and imagination. Many will find it slow and laborious. Others will find it to be a breath of fresh air in a stale and formulaic genre.