Starring: Bruce Willis and

Haley Joel Osment

Everyone has gotten goose bumps from a movie at one point or another. Many horror films are shameless attempts to label films as scary by dumping cheap thrills on an audience. Often the shock is generated by a stranger hiding in the shadows only to spontaneously announce his presence. It's so refreshing for a true horror film to arrive after countless audiences pay good money in the hopes of satisfying their cravings. That said, The Sixth Sense is not your daddy's horror film.

The plot's abundance of surprising twists serves as a gripping element that essentially makes the movie work. A young boy named Cole (played by Haley Joel Osment) is being plagued by a supernatural force. It is up to a child psychologist, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) to heal the boy, solve the mystery and save his marriage before it falls apart. The story is developed to the point of believability and is somewhat original, save for the mild similarity to The Exorcist in which a young child is dealing with mysterious forces. The characters do not seem like cardboard and the situations are realistic and intriguing. The performances are top notch. It is especially refreshing to see Bruce Willis giving a performance imbued with concern and thoughtfulness. Haley Joel Osment, who plays the ten-year old Cole gives a tour-de-force worthy of an Oscar nomination. His moods and visions are mesmerizing. The script is filled with great ideas that scream for further exposition; often the audience is left wanting to know more, but frankly, explanation would slow the movie down.

The script uses thrilling situations not merely for action sequences, but also to evoke poignant emotions. The first hour has surprisingly little going on, yet manages to glue the audience to the screen with mere intrigue. Sense is possibly the best scripted horror film written by its director M. Night Shyamalan. Shyamalan directs the film slickly, with a deftness that successfully keeps things creepy throughout the whole movie.

This film is frightening...it is terribly frightening. Being rated PG-13, it is no gore-fest, though still quite heavy on the corpses. The catch is that the film contains indelible images, striking enough to stay in your mind long after the movie is over. The Sixth Sense ranks among the best horror films of all time, best being in this case, qualitatively. A horror film with an Oscar-quality script and great acting is truly a novelty. The Exorcist is the only film The Sixth Sense can be compared to, given the quality and subject matter. Is it scarier than the Exorcist? Quite possibly in fact. While Sixth Sense is not Best Picture material, it may be scarier because it is more accessible to people. Many in 1973 were terrified of The Exorcist, simply because they thought it was real - many of these people were Christian; it hit home. The Sense, happily does not discriminate.

The Sixth Sense also boasts a surprise ending that's guaranteed to knock the wind out of your sails. For those who relish these types of mysteries, let it be noted that it is much more satisfying than the twists in Primal Fear or The Usual Suspects. The ending in the film is part and parcel of the film's basic underlying concept. It will naturally lead into post-film discussions, testing the endings validity over each suspicious scene. The ending alone merits a second viewing of the film. In these days all you need to know is that witches are out, and corpses are in.