Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Following an unexpected tragedy, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe meets a nine year old boy named Cole Sear, who is hiding a dark secret.
The Sixth Sense is defined by one of cinema's most celebrated twist endings, which recontextualizes the entire film and rewards close attention. Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment deliver exceptional performances — Osment's turn is among the finest child acting ever committed to screen. The plot is tightly constructed with remarkable discipline, planting clues throughout that only reveal themselves in retrospect, making it genuinely novel in its execution of the ghost story genre. The ending earns a rare 4 as it is both emotionally resonant and structurally masterful. Cinematography is competent and atmospheric but not the film's primary strength — Tak Fujimoto's muted palette and careful framing serve the story well without being especially distinctive, landing it at above average rather than exceptional.