'I see dead people'

Rating: 8/10 (24 August 2010)

The Sixth Sense was the film that sky-rocketed M. Night Shyamalan's career and well, he hasn't been able to escape it since. Before hand he had made 2 films; Praying with Anger which it was rumoured that Shyamalan tried to suppress it's existence like Stanley Kubrick did with Fear and Desire; and Wide Awake, a family comedy that was a commercial flop. He also helped write Stuart Little before his big break came with The Sixth Sense, at the young age of 29.
Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a successful and rewarded child psychologist, but suffers guilt about a former patient Vincent Grey (Donnie Wahlberg) who breaks into his house. The next year Crowe wants to do right when he works with a 9-year-old boy Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) who suffers from the same symptoms. Both have major problems, Crowe is distance to his wife Anna (Olivia Williams) whilst Cole's mother Lynn (Toni Collette) does not know how to deal with her son who is anxious, isolated and considered a freak by other school children. But Cole's biggest problem is that he can see ghost who have suffer some of the most horrific injuries and harm the small boy, making him life of fear. Both psychologist and patient needs to face up to their demons.
Shyamalan show he was once a writer/director of great skill and both a great supernatural thriller and a horror film. Shyamalan makes a dark tone and lit film with brilliant camera work: Shyamalan loves using single take shots with the camera either following people or moving around the room to give the film an unbroken, organic feel. It's a skill other great like Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Darren Aronofsky and Alfonso Cuaron, so it is of course good enough Shyamalan. Shyamalan also blends together the supernatural element of ghosts with how people from the real world would deal with it, from a scared young boy and how to it damages his psychology, to school children who see him as a freak, to a psychologist who does not believe him. There are also real world issues involving crumbling marriages, bullying and a mother-son relationship. Shyamalan also delivers on effective on horror, from the psychological fear from a character we can care about to subtle scares involving ghosts running in the background. With Shyamalan's camera work and tone The Sixth Sense is better then most horror films.
There is a great cast and they work with a terrific script. There are characters you can sink your teeth into. Willis shows he is more then an action star but also a serious actor and gave a good performance. Osment showed that at the time he was one of the best child actors around for his time. He gave a sincere, believable performance as a scared child and was deserving of an Oscar nod. But he was a weird kid. The actresses of the film were also good, both being very real in their performances.
The Sixth Sense has an excellent, well thought out script with great ideas about people, family and the dark afterlife. This is clearly Shyamalan's best film and his career has been going downfall ever since. Unbreakable and Signs are still good films but he hasn't made a good film since.