The Beginning of the End (of good horror films)

Rating: 1/10 (12 March 2005)

Thank you, M. Night, for beginning the trend of PG-13 horror flicks. You know what I mean, the movies that come out every quarter and are gonna be the "hottest scare fest" of the season. Of course, It'd be great if we could just leave out the part about this film and it's predecessors choosing to appeal to jumpy amphetamine-laced 13 year old girls that shriek hysterically whenever a loud noise plays on screen. It would be just peachy if the fact that ever since this film, the scare factor of most modern horror films makes Goosebumps look positively horrifying, could be ignored. Unfortunately, it can't. What we have here is a "modern-horror classic", and indeed, it has all the makings of one. It brought horror filmaking to a new level, the "I wonder how many sixth graders will jump when we play that jump sound and something pops up on screen". It brought the career of rising star "I see dead people" to astonishing heights (shudders). It also got studio executive interested in the horror genre again. Too bad the genre become so badly butchered that it's practically unrecognizable.
So, on to the film. The story is about a young boy who can see dead people. It's also about his shrink, who is trying to help the boy get through his "dillusions". Of course, as we see right away, the kid really does see dead people, and what follows is the kid wandering around seeing dead people, and the shrink wondering why, until the "unpredictably and surprising" twist ending. Ah the twist ending, yet another technique in film that the Sixth Sense transformed from original to clichÃ©. The pacing of the film is repetitive and dull, and the directors laziness when bringing "scares" to the screen is appalling.
My score for this film, while abysmal, does not reflect it's production values. The acting, cinematography, and special effects are all top notch. So why such a low score? Well, put simply, this film was responsible for a crumbling away at a fantastic genre; a genre that was called "horror" for a reason: it's supposed to be scary.
Enter my feelings on the entire "PG-13" genre of horror flicks. The rating limits the possibilities of the filmmaker so much, that fear can never incubate within the viewers mind. It takes disturbing images, characters, mood, and shock, to truly scare most viewers. Simply isolating the "shock part", and cutting out the rest may sell a lot of tickets to 13 year olds, but that doesn't convince me that these films are any good.
I understand that, as a filmmaker and fan of the genre itself, I can be a little jaded when it comes to horror. Maybe the reason I thought "Boogeyman" sucked was because I'm immune to terror, and that movie really was scary. But for some reason, I doubt that. Good cinema, for me, is about pushing the envelope of human emotion. If it's a romantic comedy, and it's not funny or romantic, it's not a good romantic comedy. And if a horror film is not scary, it defies what the genre is supposed to be. Therefore, as a fan of horror, I am disappointed with this film and the trend of films it started.
In one final note, I would just like to thank Asian cinema for not backing down. Films like Audition and Ju-On continue to push the envelope and create truly terrifying worlds for the viewer. And this is a warning to Sam Raimi. I loved the Evil Dead movies, but if you try to ruin another great Asian film by having it remade, you'll be hearing from me.