Mutilated ghosts in bathtubs.

The dead trying to contact the living.

A victim who comes back from the grave seeking vengeance.

The Gift breathes new life into what was made familiar though The Sixth Sense and What Lies Beneath.

To some people in Brixton, Georgia, Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett) is a witch.

To others she is a balm for their troubled souls.

Annie has the gift of sight.

With the help of her cards, Annie can see into the past, present and future.

She doesn't always see clearly, nor does she see everything, but Annie does see things.

She can sense where a disease is taking root or if something good or bad is hovering over someone.

Annie's gift is the only thing that keeps the tormented car mechanic Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi) from killing himself or those he feels have filled him with demons.

It's Annie's secret counsel that gives poor battered Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank) any hope that she will not die at the hands of her abusive husband Donnie (Keanu Reeves).

What Annie never hoped to glimpse was the evil that awaits the promiscuous rich girl Jessica King (Katie Holmes).

The first time Annie meets Jessica she sees blood and death. When Jessica disappears, the girl's spirit haunts Annie's dreams, demanding the psychic bring her murderer to justice.

The Gift is pure Southern gothic.

It's a great little horror movie and the best supernatural thriller since The Sixth Sense.

Its special gift as a film is that it also has shades of To Kill A Mockingbird.

It takes very little time for director Sam Raimi to set the stage for all the dark deeds that will eventually come to light.

Brixton is a town with many secrets, so when Jessica is murdered, there is no shortage of suspects.

The problem for Annie is that her special gift puts her in grave danger.

The killer will have to silence Annie before the spirits reveal too much.

The Gift works so well because Blanchett is such a masterful actress.

She refuses to make Annie an eccentric. Instead, she makes her the most normal character in Brixton.

It's a beautifully understated performance that is made all the more powerful and credible by the histrionics of the rest of the cast.

Ribisi is a powder keg of repressed fears.

Reeves is menacing and Swank is all jitters.

Buy into the creepy gothic yarn and it will have you glued to the edge of your seat

waiting for the inevitable confrontation between the living and the dead, the innocent and the guilty.

(This film is rated AA)

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