"Do you know why you're afraid when you're alone?"

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2005)

We all know the ending by now, so I won't pretend no one knows how it ends. A suspenseful return back into the world of ghost stories carries The Sixth Sense, the first major film success by M. Night Shyamalan. The film revolves around a child, Cole Sear, who is socially awkward mainly because he can see ghosts and struggles with that each day, played by Haley Joel Osment in an Oscar Award nominated role. Bruce Willis plays Malcome Crowe, a child case worker who invests all of his time into Cole. As he investigates what is happening, he finds that he has come across a case similar to Cole's in the past, but is no nearer to figuring out how to help him. The human drama of a case worker trying to figure out what is wrong with his patient keeps the movie going, allowing Shyamalan to drop the clues throughout the movie about the ending. I have to admit I was blown away by the ending, but looking back, I should have known better, and many audiences were able to figure it all out. Some say that if you look at the movie logically, it does not hold water, but that is not the point. The movie is not about logic, but rather the experience as a viewer, watching what the director gives us, as we only see what he wants us to see. The Sixth Sense also boasts a strong soundtrack and looks good, setting a mood that gets the audience in the right frame of mind to be spooked, though it's not a horror movie. Suspenseful, smart, and well directed, The Sixth Sense is an achievement not to be underestimated.