Extremely overrated

Rating: Null/10 (26 May 2001)

This film is an attempt to bring horror out of the ironic slasher genre which has to be a good thing following their horrible decline since Scream.

The film, however, fails to deliver. The promised spooky feel to the film is absent and instead resorts to loud noises and swells in music to bring cheap jumps to the audience. It takes an unnecessary cliche in the story of the little girl and her twisted step-mother.
I cannot however fault the films performances, Bruce Willis continues his rise from action film star to sensitive character actor, Haley Joel Osment defied my expectations as a new American child star to hate with a marvelous turn as the outsider child (surely the best USA child acting of the late 90s?). The smaller parts of the film where also perfectly cast and handled well by a new director.
*SPOILERS* I would say that the film leaves many parts left open in it's twist ending to keep audiences asking questions for a long time (Where did the man keep a gun while wearing briefs? wouldn't he notice a huge hole in his back?) this can be expected with all twist films though. Far from being an original ending, it appears that Carnival of Souls and Jacob's Ladder both had similar "shocking" conclusions.
The film deserves at least a 3 out of 5 but not the classic status that it will surely gain in years to come.