The Sixth Sense

Cast: Bruce Willis, Hayley Joel Osment, Toni Colette, Olivia Williams

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Rating: M

Review: Russell Baillie

He may be on the Timeout cover but The Sixth Sense hasn't become a shoo-in for second-biggest box office flick of the year because it's got Bruce Willis in it.

And while playing psychiatrist Malcolm Crowe who's trying to fight his own demons and those plaguing neurotic 8-year-old Cole Sear might be seen as a departure, Willis has done this sort of thing before. He was police minder to autistic kid in the mediocre Mercury Rising and a psychiatrist in the hilariously awful The Color Of Night. Both would seem to set a bad precedent.

But Willis got lucky this time. He puts in a solid, convincing turn himself and the wig ain't bad either.

He's also got great help from his young co-star (Hayley Joel Osment - gripping performance aside, even his name suggests a meteoric career in the offing), supporting players Colette (as Cole's mum) and Williams (as his wife).

The script and delivery by writer-director Shyamalan disarm from the opening frames, chart a creepy course between psychological thriller and horror and come with a twist which begs you to see it all again.

Young Cole says he sees the dead and they talk to him. In those disturbing hallucinations, Crowe sees a parallel with an earlier patient who turned his life upside down after breaking into his home one night.

To say more about the plot would be to really start spoiling things. Let's just say it does suffer some flaws in its otherworldly logic and in occasional puzzling scenes seemingly designed to manipulate our sympathy for young Cole and his precarious state of mind.

Osment still runs away with the film. He's a little wonder.

The movie itself isn't as smart as it thinks it is but it exudes a sense of dread throughout and leaves you neatly stunned as the final credits roll. It's a horror film you don't have to like horror films to be quite taken by, and it comes chillingly recommended.