A brilliant Psychological Horror film that leaves a HUGE lasting impact...

Rating: 9/10 (19 November 2013)

The Sixth sense is a psychological horror film starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment in the lead. It is a story about a married and successful award winning child psychologist who finds out that he failed one of his patients, he keeps thinking about this failure and tries to correct it and soon he meets another boy who suffers from the same problem as that failed patient and the doctor decides to help him to redeem himself. That is all I can say without spoiling the actual plot.
In traditional terms, this is not a full fledged horror flick, there are several dramatic and emotional scenes in the movie, elements of the study of human behavior is also involved. It is more of a mix of drama and psychological horror. The horror scenes in the Sixth Sense rely on scary or dangerous looking ghosts and sound effects, now the sound effects do leave an impact but the creepy looking ghosts in films used to scare me when I was a kid, now that I am grown up this doesn't work anymore. That doesn't mean that the great sound effects won't make you feel the chills and some scenes will startle you or shock you for a few moments. Specially if you are watching the film alone in a dark room.
The music in this film is brilliant, I already mentioned the sound effects but the music used for emotional scenes in the movie really helps build up the mood and suits the scenes perfectly.
The acting is absolutely fantastic, Bruce Willis who is best known for action roles in films like the Die Hard Series, performs the role of Dr. Milcolm very well, it is not only shocking to see him fit so well in a role like this but act so well. Haley Joel Osment does a fantastic job, his facial expressions and delivery just feel so natural, its amazing how he could act so well at such a young age. Toni Colette and Olivia Williams have limited roles but they do good with all the screen time they get.
The movie is deep and leaves you thinking, but it moves at a very slow pace and it may lose the attention of the audience at least in the first half . I also can't help but feel that this film heavily relies on its twist at the end to leave a major lasting impact on the audience rather than leaving that impact as a whole. The twist is excellent and surprising & it definitely adds a whole lot to the plot and the premise of the film as whole. The problem is that The film will only leave a full impact when you watch it for the second time, knowing what the twist at the end will be, only then you will be able to enjoy the Sixth Sense to its fullest and properly comprehend it.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10