Write with your gut - Direct with your heart

Rating: 9/10 (31 August 1999)

The Sixth Sense is about passion and restlessness, about the unseen world. From the outset the story tears at the inside of your mind and seeks a comfortable place to hide, a warm understanding place to call home. This movie slowly creates its premise from the veil that shrouds the spirit world and pulls you into a place that is both familiar and uneasy. This is the small noise in the night not the loud shrieking of banshees. With out a doubt M. Night Shyamalan has written and directed a brilliant look at the spirit world, his command of character and plot and the compelling use of camera and editing reminds one of Hitchcock or a more mature contemporary director like Altman in the Gingerbread Man.
Though much of the focus has rightly been on the child actor Haley Joel Osment and tough guy Bruce Willis' re-birth as a charming and complex vehicle, the cohesion and mounting tension of the film owe much to the well thought out work of Shyamalan. Starting with the development of a wonderful chemistry between the actors and their slow developed interaction with each other the writer-director M. Night Shyamalan weaves a work that somehow keeps you both pressed back into and at the same time on the edge of your seat. He is the face that we see in the firelight for he tells stories in much the same way that other master storytellers do  slowly building up each piece of his fantasy world. It clearly is Shyamalan that continually surprises us with small feints and intricate maneuvers, for me it was his work that was a pleasure to watch. On the other hand the inspired Osment / Willis pairing is also a treat - reasoned, well paced and seasoned with the just the right about of well spoken lines and haunting  haunted looks. The other cast members major and minor also help to round out a believable story. This was a true example of movie as a team sport!
Shyamalan is a talent that knows what buttons to push, this is not someone who feels he has to shock us every minute to scare us or preach to us every minute to open us up to new ways of thinking. He slowly reveals to us our uneasiness with things in the natural world - like houses that creak in the night. What a complete story, what a deep imagination. This is a story of restless passion that takes hold of you and won't let you go. Even after you return home something will gnaw at you. We'll leave the light on for you - Ya hear!
See this film in a theater with an ample screen and good sound system.