Stir of Echoes (1999)

Released in the same year as The Sixth Sense, this paranormal thriller also has a cute-ish kid seeing dead people, but the focus of the plot is on Dad, following a more Amityville Horror-type of same-old trajectory in which the 'he' (Kevin Bacon) becomes increasingly erratic, subject to paranormality that renders him unable to maintain happy relationships with his wife and child - it's all very predictable but some effective sfx chills helps to overcome the stock-standardness.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The Medusa Touch (1978)

There's a murder attempt in the opening scene - a man watching a news story about astronauts is bludgeoned - and then, as the victim lies in hospital, an investigation is launched which reveals in flashbacks from the man's life the queer paranormal context of the crime, in this gripping 1978 film, part science-fiction, part police procedural, and part supernatural thriller with Richard Burton beautifully playing the tortured central character both sympathetic and terrifying, like a grown-up Damien.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Red Lights (2012)

Occam's Razor is the philosophical principle which states the simplest explanation is often correct, but the most banal and laughable explanations can also be correct as demonstrated in this precursor to Now You See Me that swaps the Four Horsemen's magic tricks for the paranormal feats of Robert De Niro's spoon-bending Simon Silver, a Uri Geller type who commands large sums of money for tickets to his arena spectaculars and Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy's duo of Occam's Razor-spouting CSI: Supernatural investigators are the ones getting super worked up about his feats.

★☆☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS