Would have been better without the trailer

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2000)

This is clearly one of the best horror films ever made. It accomplishes good fright without a lot of gore. However, it has some weaknesses that still bother me and clearly do not make it an Oscar contender with such great films as American Beauty and Girl Interrupted. The first flaw is not in the film, but in the trailer. Yes, "I see dead people" is an enticing line, but I would have given anything to see this movie without knowing that in advance. It really detracted from the early suspense. And, the big surprise ending I hear about is so obvious that I thought the surprise might be that the obvious ending didn't occur (and this would have made it a better film). Unfortuantly, the obvious does happen and they use very heavy-handed flashbacks to make sure even the dumbest in the audience get the idea.
Other than these flaws, it's an excellent film.