Strong ghost story with some flaws

I was impressed with David Koepp’s direction. It was very pacey and atmospheric, and Bacon was excellent in the central role.

The whole ghost-crying-out-for-help trope was kinda obvious though. I’m not sure if it’s the film’s fault, or just bad luck for coming out a month after The 6th Sense.

On that note, I remember rolling my eyes in the theatre at the kid-who-can-see-dead-people concept. Was that ripped off 6th sense or was it a pure coincidence?

One thing that frustrated me was the failure of the parents to properly speak to their kid and find out WTF he’s talking about. He clearly has the answers so why didn’t they? Later we find out from the wife that Bacon and the kid have been spending days whispering - why didn’t we see any of that? Surely the kid would have communicated something of relevance during those ‘conversations’?

Friendly black man who can ‘shine’ along with the kid has been done before. Why didn’t the wife tell Bacon about her conversation with Halloran 2.0?? Why was she berating Bacon for ‘digging’ after she knew the ghost was real?

These holes sadly hold the film back from greatness, but the good outweighs the bad and some of the hallucinations and ‘dreams’ are very effective. Especially when Bacon sees his ebullient fat friend in his house, suddenly really serious and talking about ‘they’re going to kill you’.

The human villains were actually the most haunting part. They seemed like a bunch of fun-loving working class guys but were secretly rapists and murderers. Their confrontation with Bacon at the end was great, as was the ‘feathers’ revelation - nice set-up and slick pay-off.

All in all it’s a thoroughly worthwhile watch, but I can’t help feeling that a couple more rewrites could have made this a mini-classic.