A fine, important piece of filmmaking.

Rating: 9/10 (28 August 1999)

From the trailers and the posters advertised in the newspapers, my first reaction was, great. Another dumpy special effects bonanza with CGI ghosts, no plot, and bad acting. Just what we need. The critics rave reviews got me interested(they should advertise the movie). I went to see it, and was, to say the least, delighted with what I saw. I was deeply touched by it. It's not some scary monster movie with corny acting and CGI ghosts like the remake of "The Haunting". In fact, there isn't a single special effect in "The Sixth Sense". Not one. It doesn't need effects, because it's about facing the most frightening point of our lives, death. I walked out of the theater feeling the same way as I did when I came out of Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful", and that was very happy. This is the first film about death that made me feel good, and ready to accept death at the time I may face it. "Ghost" is the wrong film to watch, because it made me scared of death. "The Seventh Seal" was about using the time you have left to live, so that didn't have a real positive impact on me either. "The Sixth Sense" did, and I was really happy about it. Despite it's 1 or 2 Hollywood cliches, "The Sixth Sense" is an important film for our lives because it teaches us to face death, to accept it, and to not be afraid. There were times in the movie when I thought to myself, why are the spirits the boy sees splattered with gore, blood, and muck? Is this supposed to scare us? Are blood and gore Hollywood's only idea of death? No. It's simply the way the spirits died. The tagline says, "Not every gift is a blessing". I disagree. I thought that the boy WAS blessed with a gift, yet he was frightened by it and he did not understand it. I think the advertising campaign needs to rethink their methods of advertising "The Sixth Sense", because they make it look like a stupid special effects fest, which it is not. I would remove some of the cliches here and there, and I still think "The Blair Witch Project" is the best film of the year. Still, I liked this film very much. I was deeply moved and touched by it. I think it's important that people see this film. It might change their lives!