If you retain nothing else from the paranormal thriller The Sixth Sense (and with a film of this caliber, that's not likely), then remember these three words: Haley Joel Osment. For they're going to be associated with a lot of big things -- things like Oscar nominations, which this phenomenal eleven-year-old actor sorely deserves this year but will not likely get due to the Academy's aversion to horror movies starring Bruce Willis. And it's a shame too, because Osment is not the only wonderful part of The Sixth Sense; brilliantly directed and genuinely moving, this refreshingly traditional and chilling ghost story stands as one of the most intelligent and effective horror films of the decade.
It's also a real heartbreaker. I can't ever recall crying so much during a horror movie (unless you count the Haunting remake, and that was for different reasons altogether). The Sixth Sense tells the story of Cole Sear, a young boy who, as he puts it in one of the movies most painful scenes, "can see dead people." This is a plot line seen in countless ghost stories and horror films, it's something of a classic retread -- but through Osment's eyes, the eyes of a child, it becomes almost unbearable to watch. Cole encounters visions horrifying in both their physical form as well as their effect on his own perceptions -- he faces death not only in the form of ghosts, but in their constant assault on his own sense of mortality. Osment plays this part with an uneasy mixture of sophistication and the raw honesty only an eleven-year-old can express; it is a flawless performance, and a deeply moving one.
Willis plays Malcolm Crowe, a child psychiatrist who feels a need to help Cole through his depression because of his failure with another patient (a very 30-year-old Donnie Wahlberg) who killed himself. Despite his reputation, Willis is actually a very skilled, very capable actor when given a role like this; he and Osment have terrific chemistry, and as the story begins to involve more of Malcolm's personal life (his troubled marriage to his wife, Rushmore's Olivia Williams), his performance becomes incredibly good. He is greatly helped, however, by the excellent direction from M. Night Shyamalan, who also wrote and has a small role in the film.
Shyamalan directs with an attention to mood and detail reminiscent of Hitchcock, but never allows the film to become so stylized as to take away from its sheer emotional power. Although more sad than scary, The Sixth Sense is chilling in the sense than, in a world where the dead move unseen among the living, even inanimate objects seem to have some dark character and motive all their own. Shyamalan conveys an atmosphere of dread and unease, which is punctuated by the fact that Osment and Willis have such realistic human reaction to it. His script is also admirably done, extremely well-crafted with a surprising twist at the end. The Sixth Sense succeeds on every level, but most of all on an emotional one; as a horror movie it frightens not by showing the gruesome physical properties of death, but the human anguish of loss.
DROOL FACTOR: Those who worship at the name Wahlberg should be aware going in that this is Donnie, not Mark, so be careful. Bruce Willis is, well, Bruce Willis, and Haley Joel Osment is 11. That leaves the brief cameo of M. Night Shyamalan, director/writer/actor -- and resident hottie.
GROSS-OUT FACTOR: The spirits appear in the form they took when they died, gunshot wounds to the head and all. It's rather like Beetlejuice -- only scary as hell.
STRONG CHICK FACTOR: Toni Collette is great as Cole's mom, but this is the kind of flick where stuff like this is just irrelevant. Sixth Sense tells a great story through some terrific characters, and gender is -- refreshingly -- not an issue.
--Sarah Kendzior
