One of Shyamalan's Best But A Tad Overrated

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2019)

Sixth Sense is a good film, but I find it very overrated. Everyone and their mother praises this film as being not only one of M. Night Shyamalan's best films but one of the best thrillers period. On the cover it of the DVD it even says; "The Best Thriller Ever!" No. When I finally saw the film many years ago I was quite underwhelmed. I found it to be a decent suspense/horror film. The acting was fine. Bruce Willis does a good job in the film. However, I do not see it as the masterpiece that everyone thinks it is. I recently re-watched the film without any of those expectations, and I liked the film even more. I do think this a really good movie, and one of Shyamalan's best. However, I still don't think it's Shyamalan's peak. In my opinion, his greatest film is Unbreakable, which deserves more recognition.
Bruce Willis plays a child psychologist named Dr. Malcolm Crowe. Crowe meets a Cole Sear, played by Haley Joel Osment. Cole claims to be able to see dead people wherever he goes.
Another preconceived notion I had when I first viewed the film years and years ago was that I thought it was a horror film, because I had heard that so many people found the film incredibly scary. I saw the film under that notion and didn't find it scary in the least. But this not a horror film at all. It's simply a psychological thriller with supernatural elements. We don't even see any supernatural things happen until more than an hour in. At first you think it's all in the kid's mind.
Bruce Willis and Haley do a fine job acting wise. I did like these two characters. I thought they were both likable and had energy, which is more than I can say for the character in Shyamalan's latest works. The story was and how the final twist is handled is some Shyamalan's best writing. I often forget how talented of s story and character writer Shyamalan could be given some of his later work. It's like in between Signs and Split all of his writing talent was just sucked out of him by some unknown force, and he somehow got it back.
Overall I liked the Sixth Sense, but I do not think it is as good a people make it out to be. It is a film that should be seen at least once though.