Implicit Ghost Story

Rating: Null/10 (1 November 2000)

Bruce Willis is in one of his most mature roles of his career as Dr. Malcolm Crowe. M.Night Shyamalan shows some promise as one of the first great horror filmmakers of the 21th Century. It came around the same time as the Blair Witch Project(1999) and in my opinion is a better film. Its more effective at utilizing the psychological aspects of implicit and suggestive horror. This was the second film that Bruce Willis played a doctor who suffers a traumatic experience at the start of the film(the other feature was The Color of Night{1994}). Haley Joel Osment gives the most convincing performance of a young kid since Heather O'Rourke talked to the TV people in Poltergeist(1982). The Sixth Sense is like a puzzle box that needs to be viewed more then once. The color red plays a major importance in the roles of the ghosts. Olivia Williams is lovely as the sad Mrs. Crowe. The Sixth Sense(1999) has the most surprising ending that I've have seen since the unmasking of the mysterious villain in The Usual Suspects(1995).