Child psychologist Malcom Crowe is one night visited by an ex-patient named Vincent, angry, enraged. He wounds Crowe, then kills himself. A few months later, Crowe is visited by a 9-year old boy named Cole. He sees dead people who do not know they are dead. Because of this, he is called a freak in school. Crowe, at first thinks he is seeing things, but after spending a lot of time with Cole (much to his wife's dismay), he discovers Cole may be seeing dead people after all...

M. Night Shyamalan pitched the film as a cross between The Exorcist (1973) and Ordinary People (1980).

[first lines]


Anna Crowe:
It's getting cold.


Malcolm Crowe:
That is one fine frame; one fine frame that is. How much...

[he sits down with a grunt]


Malcolm Crowe:
...does a fine frame like that cost, do you think?


Anna Crowe:
I never told you, but you sound a little like Dr. Seuss when you're drunk.

Continuity: Malcolm's hair falls to the side when he does his "magic trick" for Cole in the library. When the camera cuts back to Malcolm, his hair is fixed.

Written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne
Performed by Chet Baker
Courtesy of Blue Note Records, a division of Capitol Records, Inc.
Under license from EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets