Decided to revisit this classic. It was a brand new take on one of the more fundamental themes of the "scary movie" family of genres, life after death. M. Night Shyamalan adopted the always reliable Twilight Zone Gothic approach, but set up an all-time reverse twist finale that would have made Rod Serling stand up and applaud.
This could be Bruce Willis's most understated and yet finest performances of his career. No laughing and destroying stuff; instead he approaches his role thoughtfully. It was a new side to him, and he carried himself well. He's a child psychiatrist, with a new patient, Haley Joe Osment, that is filled with angst and makes the claim that dead people are drawn to him like a magnet and talk to him. Osment's performance is emotional and oddly believable. His classic declaration about dead people "don't know they're dead!" is one of the best delivered ever.
Ghost visitations are utilized perfectly and just often enough so that every one of them is executed with a dramatic impact and superior fright factor. Low lighting is used almost all the time for a dark, oppressive mood, which fits most of the time.
Now the weaknesses. In retrospect, there are some serious lapses in logic through the course of the story. How could the "twist" have been concealed from the protagonist so long, without some character or action revealing the truth to him? The scenes that are meant to address this fail to explain it. There are some very awkwardly slow scenes in the story, and others that just aren't useful. These scenes are constructed to set up the shock value of the final reveal, but most of them are just plain dull.
But overall, this is a fine work, complete with fine performances and an original concept that make for a good, scary ghost story.
This could be Bruce Willis's most understated and yet finest performances of his career. No laughing and destroying stuff; instead he approaches his role thoughtfully. It was a new side to him, and he carried himself well. He's a child psychiatrist, with a new patient, Haley Joe Osment, that is filled with angst and makes the claim that dead people are drawn to him like a magnet and talk to him. Osment's performance is emotional and oddly believable. His classic declaration about dead people "don't know they're dead!" is one of the best delivered ever.
Ghost visitations are utilized perfectly and just often enough so that every one of them is executed with a dramatic impact and superior fright factor. Low lighting is used almost all the time for a dark, oppressive mood, which fits most of the time.
Now the weaknesses. In retrospect, there are some serious lapses in logic through the course of the story. How could the "twist" have been concealed from the protagonist so long, without some character or action revealing the truth to him? The scenes that are meant to address this fail to explain it. There are some very awkwardly slow scenes in the story, and others that just aren't useful. These scenes are constructed to set up the shock value of the final reveal, but most of them are just plain dull.
But overall, this is a fine work, complete with fine performances and an original concept that make for a good, scary ghost story.