A stunning and wonderful film

Rating: 10/10 (10 October 1999)

It has been more than six weeks since I have seen this movie. In that time I have seen five or six movies in theaters, and that many or more on video.
This had far more impact on me than any of them (including American Beauty) - that's how good, unusual, and resonant it is.
This is not just another horror movie, or just a horror movie with a twist. What it amounts to is a journey that the viewer doesn't know he is taking. Most horror films leave you at the end with a feeling of dread, relief, or remembered shock, but this is the first horror movie that filled me with joy at the end - and that's the most amazing thing about it. The other amazing thing is the sheer intelligence of this script throughout.

I'm not as impressed as some with Willis's acting - I thought it was serviceable and filled the bill. It was, however, great casting, because having him in there made the viewer start to expect a real "Night of the Living Dead" gorefest climax - Bruce against the zombies! Light the torches! - concealing the true nature of this movie until the end. But Osmont's acting - and the way he was directed - had me completely sympathizing with him; both his fright and bewilderment, and his later courage in being able to talk to the unwelcome visitor in the playhouse, were entirely convincing and moving.
I will see this movie again; I don't think it's making too much of it to say that it's got enough ambiguities and layers of meanings to justify repeated viewings. I don't think that it will get the Oscar for Best Picture of the year; it may not even be nominated, and I'm not certain that it will deserve it. It's clearly not an Oscar-oriented picture, in that it doesn't have the Big Gesture, the Good Costumes, the Big Sinking Boat, the Grand Theme, the Anthony Hopkins appearance, and not a strand of classical music in sight or sound. But seeing it was one of the most moving moviegoing experiences I have had in a long time, and I hope that at least the script and Osmont get Oscars. And where was Haley earlier this summer when we needed him on Tatooine?