Haley Joel Osment gives an excellent performance, and the movie scares the pants off you

Rating: 10/10 (21 February 2003)

Before I had seen "The Sixth Sense" all I heard was that it was about it was a kid who saw dead people. It is much more than that. It is a movie about a kid who sees dead people, but it is also a film that shows us how lonely children can be and how a divorce can effect a child's life. Haley Joel Osment plays Coal, a recent victim to his parents divorce. Coal is a very lonely child, as we see throughout the movie he has no friends and he always gets picked on. His mother (Toni Collette) is always trying to comfort him, and talk to him, but Coal does not want to be comforted.

The movie starts out with Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) a child phychologist, who has recently won an award for his work in child phychology. He and his wife go up to their room after admiring the award only to find that their house has been broken in to. The person who has broken in is a depressed and miserable man who is a former patient of Crowe's. He states that he was a child of a divorced couple and that when he was a child, Malcolm was sent to help him. He is very upset with Malcolm because Malcolm did not help him at all. When Malcolm offers to help him, the patient (Donnie Wahlberg) picks up a gun on the toilet and shoots Malcolm. We then see the patient commit suicide and Malcolm's wife going over to the bed to help Malcolm.

The scene then switches over to Coal again. He is going to be the next patient of Malcolm. Coal and Malcolm get off to a very bad start. Coal clearly does not like Malcolm and does not want him to help him. Eventually Coal and Malcolm get to be friends and Coal says that he has a secret that he has not told anybody. He says he will tell Malcolm. His secret is: I see dead people. This unleashes a whole different problem for Malcolm. Before he was trying to help Coal with his parents divorce. Now he must find a way to make the dead people go away.
This is a pure horror film. If you get scared very easily, this is not the right movie for you. It has occured to me that M. Night Shamayalan is the next Steven Spielberg. Along with this movie, Mr. Shamayalan also made Signs (which is as good as this film), another horror flick that shows a stunning reality of what Earth could be like if it was being invaded by aliens. Shamayalan does an excellent job of directing "Signs". Shamayalan also does an excellent job with this film. His casting is right on target. Haley Joel Osment does a sensational job as Coal, and Bruce Willis, once again, gives a great performance as Malcolm Crowe. Shamaylan definetely knows how to scare and when to scare correctly, and he also knows how to direct correctly. The truth of "The Sixth Sense" will blow your mind.
**** out of ****