The Sixth Sense (1999)

3 out of 4

Starring: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Time: 106 mins

The North American summer movie season is usually dominated by loud, fast-paced, action-packed, special effects blockbusters. These films are what we sometimes call thrill-rides, where you grab your popcorn and drink, park your brain at the door, and sit back to enjoy the visual and aural assault coming from the screen and speakers. Witness the summer of 1997, when these films premiered one after the other: The Fifth Element, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Con Air, Speed 2, Batman and Robin, Face/Off, Men in Black, and Air Force One. The summer of 1999, however, while opening with a couple of predictably big special effects extravaganzas (Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace and The Mummy), will be known more as the season of ghosts and tasteless jokes. The tasteless joke brigade included Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, American Pie, and Big Daddy, and the ghostly tales included The Haunting, The Blair Witch Project, and the most recent, M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense.

Bruce Willis stars as acclaimed child psychologist Malcolm Crowe whose latest patient is a troubled child named Cole Sear (Forrest Gump's Osment, in a very good performance). Crowe is still recovering from the mental and physical trauma of having a former patient break into his house and committing suicide, an incident that has left him emotionally scarred and fractured his relationship with his wife (Williams, from Rushmore). He sees a chance at re-establishing his professional life by working with Cole.

Cole's problem is that he sees ghosts, or more precisely (as revealed in the trailer), "dead people". These are not people who have died peacefully, but gruesomely. There is a young boy who has been shot in the back of his head, and a particularly angry housewife with slit wrists. Needless to say, Cole is frightened, especially when some of these spirits can inflict wounds on him.

His worried mother (Collette of Muriel's Wedding fame) is at a loss. Only Crowe can get through to him, but even he is sceptical when Cole reveals his secret. As he slowly learns the truth, Crowe encourages Cole to approach the ghosts, and see what they want. Meanwhile, Crowe's domestic life grows worse, with his wife not talking to him and even seeing another man.

The Sixth Sense makes up for a slow-paced first hour with some genuinely scary scenes during the second. While there are a few, make-you-jump moments, the most shocking is not a traditional scare scene at all. It occurs during the interlude at a dead girl's funeral, when the truth of how the girl died is shown by a videotape, and leaves you feeling uneasy. Indeed, I may have found the first hour boring if I had not known of Cole's secret (through the trailer, no less!). Knowing it made the wait for the second hour's revelations tolerable.

Willis turns in one of his most subdued performances. He can utter smug one-liners with the best of them in films like Die Hard and The Fifth Element, but here he plays second fiddle to young Osment. Osment is astonishing - we feel his pain and his fear, especially his inabilty to tell anyone of his secret lest they think him a freak. His is one of the more believable child performances in the past year. Toni Collette doesn't have much to do, but is good in her few scenes, and Williams is adequate.

The Sixth Sense is one of the few horror films in the last two decades that doesn't resort to gore and violence to deliver thrills and chills. Indeed, it proves that what's implied is more frightening than what's shown. While not perfect, it provides a satisfying and solid two hours of entertainment.

(c) Joe Wong