A chilling, emotional roller coaster ride

Rating: 9/10 (3 December 1999)

Hollywood is littered with child actors who have failed to continue their careers beyond their childhood years. Macaulay Culkin, Shirley Temple and Gary Coleman to name but a few. There seems though a marked difference in the promise of young Haley-Joel Osment who almost carries the brilliant 'Sixth Sense' on his own shoulders as the apparently mentally troubled Cole Sear. Osment seems to almost inspire the likes of Bruce Willis to separately stellar performances. Cole Sear claims to have the ability to 'see dead people', Willis is the child psychologist who helps Cole deal with his strange 'hallucinations'.
Willis' character, Malcolm Crowe is determined not to fail Cole in the way he failed an almost identical case years before. Crowe eventually discovers the incredible truth behind young Coles claims in one of the films more chilling scenes involving a tape recording of a previous session with another 'psychic'. Another scene which seemed to highlight the films Oscar potential involved Cole and his mother (played well by Toni Collette) caught in a traffic jam resulting from an accident, it is in this scene that the film reached its emotional peak and seems to reach out to anyone who has lost someone close to them without warning and with so much left unfinished.
The Sixth Sense is an emotional and truly hair raising, fine piece of work that contains a final twist that will drop your jaw and send you back for more. It truly is a film that warrants a second viewing. 9/10