Sixth Sense, The

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

I haven't been so captivated, chilled and surprised by a movie in years.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The 11-year-old Osment evokes the boy's terror and awful predicament so memorably, you'll never forget him.

Chicago Tribune Marc Caro

Perhaps the most startling part is the realization that, in the turn-off-your-brain season of summer, you've just experienced an uncommonly serious-minded movie that's brave enough to engage our deepest emotions on issues of death, madness, illusion and forgiveness. That's the biggest thrill of them all.

USA Today Mike Clark

The filmmaker keeps upping the ante with surprises until the plot-twist beaut that concludes the picture - a shocker that, upon reflection, is probably the one ending that wouldn't have fallen a little flat.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

An unnerving and astonishing thriller.

New York Post Rod Dreher

(Osment) delivers what may be the greatest performance ever by a child actor.

TNT RoughCut Matt Kelsey

Willis puts his action-hero stereotype on the back burner to deliver one of his most intriguing roles since "12 Monkeys."

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's a psychological thriller that actually thrills.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Eventually writer-director M. Night Shyamalan neutralizes Willis's star presence with impressive plotting that's a fine excuse for the powerful atmosphere.

Film.com John Hartl

The boy (Osment) has an uncanny ability to suggest Cole's secretive, haunted soul, and he seems to have inspired Willis to give perhaps his most self-effacing performance.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Teeters on the brink of New Age ludicrousness, but it never goes over: Like Kieslowski and others, Shyamalan knows that what makes for lousy metaphysics can make for powerful metaphor, and in the end he creates a deeply, surprisingly affecting film out of a little bit of smoke and brimstone.

Los Angeles Times John Anderson

So disarmingly eerie it's virtually guaranteed to rattle the most jaded of cages.

LA Weekly John Patterson

Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan lets the tension rise slowly, leads you everywhere you don't expect, doesn't rip you off and totally freaks you out -- all without stale effects or gore.

Film.com Tom Keogh

Chalk this film up as an unusually intelligent thriller about that which scares us the most: accepting our accidents of fate.

Film.com Peter Brunette

It's far more loquacious and cerebral than your average run-of-the-mill thriller, but boy, when the relatively infrequent scares do come, they will pull you out of your seat and raise the hair on your arms.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Works best when it works its mournful magic alone, without fanfare, using only the flickering fear in Cole's gaze as it meets the compassion in Crowe's.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Has a kind of calm, sneaky self-confidence that allows it to take us down a strange path, intriguingly.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

If this isn't the single best performance ever by a preadolescent male (Osment) in a motion picture, then it's tied for whatever is first.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Ultimately affecting mix 'n' match weeper.

Portland Oregonian Diana Abu-Jaber

Sometimes verges on silliness.

Newsweek Walaika Haskins

Although the film occasionally descends into mawkishness, Shyamalan is skilled at bringing the tension to excruciating heights.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's like an enema to the soul as it probes the ways of death ? some especially grotesque in a family setting. You leave slightly asquirm. You know it will linger.

Time Richard Schickel

Unfolds with a patient intelligence. The Sixth Sense might not scare you out of your wits, but it could reward them.

Slate David Edelstein

Ultimately, it has less in common with "Blair Witch" than with such quivering lumps of sentiment as "Ghost" and Field of Dreams."

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

A metaphysical shaggy-dog story, whose unpredictable punchline is its only redeeming feature.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Borderline dull to sit through, The Sixth Sense is actually rather interesting to think about afterward because of the revelation of its ending.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The thriller's best and worst features all stem from a highly unusual plot structure that builds to a genuinely startling conclusion.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jeff Gray

At least tries to disturb us, rather than shock us or gross us out, and that is admirable. But it doesn't pull it off, and the movie is indicative of the trouble Hollywood has these days making that most frightening kind of movie -- the kind that lets the audience frighten itself.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Complain all you want about Willis's posturing and the rabbit-in-the-hat ending (predicated as it is on a vast plothole), the film is still a rarity, a studio horror movie focused on a child's traumatic stress.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

The flashy sensationalism of The Sixth Sense -- maybe the best thing about it -- is at war with its desire for contemplation.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Buried deep inside this ponderous, repetitive psychological thriller is a fantastic half-hour "Twilight Zone" episode.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

An inferior product. It is not well written, well acted, or well directed.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

The biggest piece of supernatural hooey since estranged wife Demi Moore's "The Seventh Sign."

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Because the movie never fully engages us, it never quite manages to allay our queasiness about watching the boy's distress.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Because it unfolds like a garish hybrid of Simon Birch and What Dreams May Come, with some horror-movie touches thrown in to keep us from nodding off, "The Sixth Sense" appears to have been concocted at exactly the moment Hollywood was betting on supernatural schmaltz.