What a brilliant piece of work this film is, even when watching it a second time. There are new surprises around every corner, a credit to the fine work of M. Night Shyamalan. The small film that became a cultural phenomenon, and everyone knows where the phrase “I see dead people” comes from. It also put the spotlight on two newcomers to Hollywood, M. Knight Shyamalan and Haley Joel Osment who were virtual unknowns before then.

It’s so such a simple film really, and it truly can be creepy and frightening at times with an ending that will just knock your socks off. You don’t really appreciate this film until after you’ve seen it for the first time, then it all comes together. All the clues are there, placed right in front of the viewer, but at the same time its not glaringly obvious either. Fantastic writing, and great direction lend to such spine tingling moments that made me even afraid to sit in the dark and watch this even on my second time around.

The Sixth Sense’s greatest strength come definitely from the excellent casting. Bruce Willis puts out a great dramatic performance as child psychologist Malcolm Crowe. This is a nice departure from his earlier Action hero/comedic roles that he was mostly known for at the time. You can see what a great actor he really can be, exhibiting a lot of genuine emotion throughout the film.

Bruce may have had top billing for this movie, but the truly breakout performance comes from Osment. He plays the perpetually anguished Cole is such a convincing manner that it creeped me out. This is probably his greatest role I’ve seen him in, and he’s just starting out! He was good in A.I., but this was a complete knockout for him. He should have won the Oscar that year for this, not Michael Caine for Cider House Rules (although that film is really good too). Haley is one amazing little actor, when the script works for him. I think since then his career has faltered a bit, and he has been losing momentum ever since. That’s the breaks kid, you grow up.

On the technical side of things this DVD is fairly standard. The picture is decent and the soundtrack has a nice clean mix, there are no surprises here. Also included in this edition are a bunch of extras worth watching. There is a newer DVD out there of this movie and that has most of the same items included. Look around for the hidden cookie of a very early movie attempt by Knight at filmmaking. Quite hilarious and probably most embarrassing for him I’m sure, nice of him to include that. All of the documentaries and interviews provide lots of nice background information about this film, and may help clue you in on even more stuff that I certainly missed while watching.

Overall, this is a great movie, an it comes with a nice package to boot.

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