Good, but too much promotion

Rating: 7/10 (29 June 2004)

M. Night Shyamalan's first film was impressive. Like his later movies its strengths were in it's dark mood and atmosphere and in its modern take on a classic story premise (ghosts). Also notable were the use of color and temperature for thematic purposes. Haley Joel Osment delivered an excellent breakthrough performance and was nominated for an Oscar. However, the surprise ending was actually rather predictable, mainly because of the hype surrounding the twist which gave people almost a year to think about it if they didn't see it in theatres. Unbreakable and Signs were both significant improvements over The Sixth Sense. It was good film overall. 7/10