The Sixth Sense - Will's Review

When we first started Video Nasty A Week (the forerunner to this very blog) the idea was that people could watch along at home, then use the comments section as a discussion area... Kind of like a book club, but with less books and more horror movies; our audience was originally intended to comprise of people who had actually seen the movies being discussed.  It never panned out that way, and so many of our reviews are now actual reviews in the more orthodox sense of the word. 

This week though, I feel the movie is old enough and popular enough that chances are good that you've already seen it; further I can't really talk about any of the things I want to talk about /without/ spoiling something. 

So, if you've never seen The Sixth Sense, if you've somehow got this far without learning spoilers; go now. Bookmark this page, go watch the movie, come back later. Seriously. 

The reason I was so keen to get rid of people who haven't seen the movie yet, is that I want to talk about the ending. An ending can make or break a movie, a movie which is perfectly good all the way through can be elevated to greatness, or ruined completely, based on the ending. This is never truer than in the case of a twist ending. 

The trouble is that with a truly great twist ending there should be enough clues throughout the movie that anyone looking for a twist ending should spot the exact twist coming a mile away; it's these moments that make the twist so shocking, providing a feeling that all of the information was there, and leaving you feeling that the twist is completely, obvious, and gels with everything you have seen. 

The Sixth Sense has such an ending. 

If you go in, knowing there is a twist, then it is almost immediately apparent that Willis' character dies in basically the first scene. We never again see him interact with any object when other people are around (he never so much as moves a chair to sit down) and no-one but Cole speaks to, or even looks directly at him, for the entire movie. Cole even tells us that ghosts do not realise that they are dead. 

The fact that all these clues are right there in the open is testament to Shyamalan as both a writer and a director; even if his subsequent films wold never quite recapture that spark, at least from a writing point of view. 

Up until the twist is revealed, the movie is still a good one; child star Haley Joel Osment puts in a star turn, and even Bruce Willis actually acts (another testament to Shyamalan as a director); but it's the ending that makes it a great one. There's some interesting shot choices, including a couple of incredibly long takes. These long takes are superb in their own right (most especially the handheld shot which follows Cole's mother as she moves from the kitchen to the laundry and back again, only to find her cupboards all open) but break the mood of the movie by 'standing out' a little to much (again, most especially the hand-held shot). 

I first saw this movie at the cinema when it came out, the twist suckered me completely, and I loved it. I was wondering how well it would survive a second viewing (even 15 years later) with the twist known; surprisingly well! The moments I mentioned that hint at the twist are interesting second time around, and the main story is, as I've said, still a great one. 

City of the Living Dead - Will's Review

And so, we finish off out second loose Italian trilogy in as many weeks; this time Fuluci's "Gates of Hell", which also included the DPP movies 'The Beyond' and 'House by the Cemetery'. Like Argento's "Three Mothers", These three films are only loosely connected, and can be watched in any order; the only connections are references to a book of magic / prophesy (The Book of Enoch) and a couple if cast members (playing different characters in each film).

In this, the first of the trilogy, the suicide of a priest opens a gate to hell in Dunwich.

Two things before we go any further.:

1. We are told (repeatedly) that Dunwich is cursed because it was by it on the ruins of Salem, and that the residents are the defendants of the original witch burners; I appreciate that the movie predates google and Wikipedia by a couple of decades, but in reasonably certain that even a cheap printed encyclopaedia would have told the writers that Salem is still standing, and still called Salem.

2. The priest no only looks uncannily like a young Christopher Lee, but is made up to be pale, with a slight redness around the eyes and brushes back dark hair. I honestly expected to see fangs every time he opened his mouth!

Back to the movie:

This suicide is 'witnessed' by a group in another part of the country, who are holding a seance - this proves to be too much for one poor young lady, who dies of fright on the spot.

Inexplicably, her death doesn't stick, and so after she is freed from her coffin by a reporter who was originally investigating her death, they head off to Dunwich together to try and close the gate to hell before All Souls' Day.

The best character (and only person in the movie who seems to be actually acting, rather than collecting a payslip) is Local simpleton Bob (John Morghen - Cannibal Apocalypse / Cannibal Ferox); not the most popular man in town, after he was once caught in the woods with a young lady (who remains his friend, so I can only guess he was with her in all innocence) Bob seems to have been branded the town pervert and scapegoat; when the people of Dunwich start dying, it isn't long before the local barflies start blaming poor old Bob.

Of course, we know that the killer isn't Bob; it's a group of super-strong, teleporting Zombies, lead by the suicide priest.

The All Souls' Day deadline, by the way, seems to be entirely arbitrary; At one point in the movie, our heroine points out that it is now All Souls' Day... But they continue anyway, and still have their final battle.

The zombies are great in this (although I'm not sure about the teleporting) with a nicely decayed look and the strength to rip the backs of people's skulls off, but it's the priest who steals the show, with his ability to fix his victims to the spot with a stare, causing their eyes to bleed and their organs to climb up out if their mouths!

The gore is top notch (duh; it's Fuluci), the plot is enjoyable, but mad (Fuluci), and the ending makes dick-all sense (again... Fuluci), but thankfully the story proper does have some resolution before the nonsensical final scene.

All in all, I feel quite happy recommending this one, but (despite the title, and the fact that it has zombies in it) don't go in expecting a 'Zombie movie' in any traditional sense.