So this is a haunted house movie starring Nicole Kidman and a couple of kids, man. It’s set in a big Victorian house, and it’s extra creepy because the kids have a light sensitivity, and so it’s kept in perpetual darkness.

As the movie begins, some servants have arrived to replace the ones who just disappeared without a trace recently. This is obviously totally fine and zero percent sus, and I’m sure it’ll go well for everyone.

Where the movie goes from there is a spoiler. This is a movie that clearly sets up the idea that something isn’t quite right here, but which wants you to be guessing what it is — there’s a lot of back and forth about whether supernatural things are real or imaginary, for instance.

The movie is excellent at setting up atmosphere. The house is creepy even when very little is happening, and the things that do happen are subtle and eerie. The relationship between Kidman and her kids is well-done, too, with both children (but especially the girl) doing excellent acting jobs. There’s so much that’s done well here in the early part of the film where the mysteries and relationships are being set up.

But alas, like a lot of fiction that sets up mysteries, the resolution ends up being a letdown. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s deeply flawed in ways that I can’t talk about without getting into spoilers.

From here on out, MAJOR MOVIE DESTROYING SPOILERS.

Okay, so the big twist is that Kidman and her kids have been dead the whole time, and that the “ghosts” they’ve been seeing are actually living people; they’re the ghosts.

This would have been a really clever and innovative twist in a world where The Sixth Sense didn’t exist. But in fact this came out two years after The Sixth Sense. The twist was reasonably obvious to me, having seen The Sixth Sense a quarter century ago; to an audience in 2001, it must have been blindingly obvious from minute one, mitigated only by their disbelief that a movie would so thoroughly copy a hit that just recently came out.

Maybe in 20-30 years, when a generation hasn’t seen Shyamalan’s movie, this will be able to surprise audiences again. But honestly, while this is an amiable little horror film, those audiences should probably see The Sixth Sense instead.