As a horror movie, "The Supernatural Sixth Sense" was destined to be controversial before its release, even "The Shining" also suffered controversy and criticism, which made "The Exorcist" more and more valuable, making horror genre works the most special genre in the film industry - absolutely niche, controversial, and weak in the mass base, but the real fans are absolutely strong, and can even be said to be fanatical.

Therefore, the box office of horror movies is often nowhere to be found, and the reviews may be terrible, but fans still scold and walk into the cinema, and the final box office is not a mess, coupled with ultra-low cost, movies can often be profitable. This has also made film companies always willing to spend a part of their budget on horror movies.

After the release of "The Sixth Sense", the "Los Angeles Times", "The New York Times", and "The Chicago Sun" all gave the highest praise, which is actually very abnormal, and can even be said to be a strange phenomenon. In the comments of other media, there is naturally a large number of critical and questioning voices.

USA Today waited a long time and finally found the right opportunity, and they only gave it a 30 points, commenting, "This is the seventh seal since Demi Moore. Seventh。 Sigh)' the biggest piece of ever since about the paranormal. In the comments, they said that the whole work of "The Sixth Sense" has no qualities at all, and as a horror movie, there is no thriller at all; And as a drama film, the sluggish pace and empty structure are no surprises.

"The Daily News" is also not weak, and a 50 percent evaluation is already considered a 10 face-saving evaluation, "The best and worst features of this horror film come from a highly unusual plot structure, but it is a pity that the director completely ruined the story and made a group of actors like nuns in tears in the church." ”

The New York Post's fifty points are also unceremonious, "This is a seemingly metaphysical story, but in fact it has no merit at all, and its unpredictability is the only merit of the whole film." And in the follow-up commentary, they also harshly criticized Hugo, "His performance is obscure and difficult, it seems that there is always something to be said, but the result is confusing." Maybe he's citizen Kane. ”

It can be seen that the controversy of horror movies has been taken to the extreme, since "the speed of life and death", Hugo has not encountered such a situation for many years, and almost every work in the past few years has achieved unanimous praise, even "Independence Day" has achieved quite good recognition. But the "supernatural sixth sense" is clearly facing more uncertainty, allowing people to flex their muscles.

Most of the negative comments in the first reviews said that the film didn't have much of a horror element, and even the thriller plot was very limited, which is completely derelict for a horror movie. It's as if the audience went to the cinema to watch a comedy, but they couldn't laugh at all, which was a complete failure. And the film's deep excavation of the core of the theme is too greedy, so that the whole work loses its crosshairs.

Still, positive praise is the main part of the argument compared to negative criticism.

The Chicago Tribune quipped, in a playful tone, "Hugo has once again brought a surprise, and apparently this time his purpose is to keep everyone awake." Their approval of the film can also be seen in the high rating of 88 points, especially in the review, "Haley's performance is once again amazing, and the chemistry between him and Hugo gives us reason to believe that Hugo is ready to become a father." ”

I have to say that this black-bellied media once again attracted people's attention with a sharp and accurate perspective, and at the same time did not forget to ridicule the relationship between Hugo and Charlize.

The British magazine "Empire" also handed in an 88-point answer sheet, saying in a review, "Perhaps the most surprising part of the whole movie is that in the summer schedule of popcorn movies that people almost don't want to think about, we have just experienced a rare 'brain-detonating' movie, which is brave enough to participate in the discussion of death and sublimate our deepest emotions, madness, hallucinations and forgiveness, which is also the biggest thriller and fear of the whole movie!" ”

In addition, the "Empire" magazine, which has always praised Hugo, is no exception this time, "After 'Truman's World', Hugo once again gave a stunning performance, showing turbulence in calm, profundity in simplicity, and thought in detail, and his performance in every scene is extraordinary, reminiscent of Jack Nicholson's performance in 'The Shining'." ”

The "Hollywood Reporter" also scored eighty-eight, "a disturbing, unbelievable, intelligent horror movie!" "The concise and clear reviews can also show that they have a super high opinion of the film.

In addition, 80 points for "Variety", 83 points for "The New Yorker", 80 points for "US Weekly", 75 points for "San Francisco Chronicle", and 78 points for "Seattle Post...... These mainstream media outlets have shown an unusually positive attitude, which is a coveted review for any movie, a great situation for any summer popcorn movie, and a moment worthy of going down in history for any horror movie.

In fact, the comprehensive score of 35 media finally reached 83 points, which also made the work exceed the 82 points of "The Exorcist", becoming the second work in film history that can rank among 80 points in the media comprehensive evaluation, and temporarily ranking first in film history, which is not only good news, but also a miracle.

The 83-point media comprehensive evaluation is enough to make "The Sixth Sense of the Supernatural" the leader of this year's summer file, and among the works that have been fully screened in more than 2,000 theaters, "The Sixth Sense of the Supernatural" is proud of the crowd and has become the biggest winner of the current summer file with incredible media recognition. Especially as a horror movie, such an achievement is even more incredible.

This suddenly made many uncertainties appear in this week's box office contenders, the super high reputation of "supernatural sixth sense", coupled with Hugo's strong appeal, how much energy can be exploded at the box office of the movie, this is a huge unknown. However, media recognition does not guarantee that the film will do well at the box office, and the audience's theatrical ratings after the premiere weekend will determine the box office trend of the film.

In the next few days, the premieres of "Sky Stealing Game", "Mystery Man" and "Iron Giant" were held one after another, and compared to the sensational grandeur of "The Sixth Sense" on August 2, the premieres of these three films were definitely not inferior, making the North American market in the first week of August completely detonate the heat of summer.

What's even more shocking is that the media reputation of these three works has performed exceptionally well, which is almost a situation that no one expected, especially in the summer file, it is very rare for a work to reach 70 points in the media comprehensive evaluation, but now, this week seems to have ushered in the piling up of high-quality works, which has pushed the prosperity of the premiere to another extreme, completely detonating the summer file market that has begun to fall!

The 72-point press review for "Sky Stealer" is an unexpectedly stellar performance for a thriller action comedy, and a testament to the accuracy of the media's previous predictions, which remain the strongest contender for the box office title this week.

"Mystery Man" is a little less lucky, the 65-point media comprehensive evaluation makes it not have too much advantage in front of other works this week, and the lack of overall topicality makes the competitiveness of the work slightly weak, but this result is still a passing score for the summer file.

"Iron Giant" almost ushered in 85 points of media reviews, including two perfect 100 points, this Warner Bros. animated film became the most acclaimed work of the summer - even surpassing this week's anti-heaven masterpiece "The Sixth Sense", although considering the factors of the subject matter itself, the advantages of "Iron Giant" are not so obvious, but it is undeniable that this makes "Iron Giant" competitive skyrocketing all of a sudden.

From the "Psychic Sixth Sense" unveiling the competition in the first week of August, to the unexpected praise of "Sky Stealing Game", to the rave reviews of "Iron Giant", this week's summer season has entered an unprecedented peak, which is too unusual for the market to gradually decline in August, and it also gives people reason to expect more from the competition in the weekend box office rankings.

Almost all the media focused on this week's box office scramble, and after Friday's screenings, the first theatrical scores began to surface, with "Iron Giant" once again unexpectedly leading the way with an "A-"; The "Sky Stealing Game" is relatively inferior, but the score of "B" is still strong, and although "Mystery Man" is only "C+", it does not have much impact on the overall situation.

The biggest surprise was "The Sixth Sense", which achieved an "A-" cinema score, which is almost the same as "Iron Giant", which is by no means typical for a horror movie - even if loyal fans show their support for the film as always, such a high rating is almost impossible, just as a comedy movie is always difficult to amuse everyone, and a horror movie wants to scare everyone and satisfy people at the same time, which is an impossible task.

But now, the "sixth sense" has done it, and almost every audience that comes out of the cinema is full of praise for the movie, and is reluctant to talk too much about the movie, just hoping that other viewers will come into the cinema and watch it for themselves. This is really an unusual phenomenon, which reminds people of the situation when the "Seven Deadly Sins" was released. A suspense that can make the whole movie extraordinary.

It seems that this week's North American box office charts have become increasingly competitive and unpredictable.