(1972)
Dir - Alf Kjellin
Overall: MEH
ABC's The Sixth Sense premiered in mid-January 1972 with "I Do Not Belong to the Human World", establishing the premise where Gary Collins' parapsychology professor investigates supernatural occurrences. Though it was not a traditional anthology program, each episode was a stand-alone story, and in this one Collins finds himself being pulled into Vietnam flashbacks via a woman who writes in a language that she does not speak while under a trance. It all connects to her presumably dead brother who seems to be telepathically reaching out from a POW camp, with gaslighting, melodrama, and a nifty theremin score peppering the proceedings. The plot gets more convoluted as it goes on, plus Collins' lack of charisma and an overall talky structure do not help matters.
(1972)
Dir - Barry Shear
Overall: MEH
"The Heart That Wouldn't Stay Buried" has some unusual and menacing set pieces, but it is still bogged down by the hour long format, as were most episodes of the The Sixth Sense. At least Gary Collins seems to be coming to his own more in the lead, growing frustrated as he is supernaturally threatened in his quest to get to the bottom of the vivid death premonitions suffered by Leif Erickson's neurosurgeon. Collins chases after a ghostly vision and falls slow motion into a pitch black void and spider web, a hawk stature comes to life and attacks, and an entire set starts shaking as if it is being transported on the back of a flatbed truck. Series creator Anthony Lawrence's script is once again overstuffed, with more elements like various characters bickering and a book on animalistic impulses seemingly having influence over certain people, including Collins who nearly strangles Erickson to death, as prophesied.
(1972)
Dir - John Badham
Overall: MEH
In "Lady, Lady, Take My Life", a colleague of Garry Collins who also possess extra-sensory perception brings him into a mystery where a seemingly healthy man dies from "impossible" circumstances moments after he breaks up a psychic experiment between five individuals. It turns out that said individuals, (including John Saxon's skeptic scientist), collectively have the ability to exert their will with deadly results, at first subconsciously yet deliberately and with focused intent by episode's end. The trippy sequences for this installment occur when Collins' Dr. Rhodes tries to get close to what is going on, cuing in Dutch angles and gel filters galore when he experiences devastating vertigo and claustrophobia merely from walking up a staircase or riding an elevator. These moments plus an intense experiment involving tarantulas getting bombarded by the group's psychic onslaught are the highlights, but it otherwise still drags regularly.
(1972)
Dir - Richard Donner
Overall: GOOD
As the title would dictate, "The House That Cried Murder" is the closest that ABC's The Sixth Sense got to a conventional haunted house yarn. The tweak comes in the crucial detail that two different deaths occurred nearby, both of which revolved around the works of Edgar Allan Poe and cause Poe-related psychic hallucinations for our main character to endure. These include getting walled up, seeing his corpse in a casket, and having a pendulum swing above his torso. Even guest star Carol Lynley is not spared as she suffers a vivid nightmare of being buried alive, not being able to breathe and everything. While the ending feels rushed once we discover who the murderer is, the rest of the presentation throws plenty of oddities into the mix, plus it is no surprise that Richard Donner was behind the lens as his sense of pacing and staging of supernatural set pieces is a cut above some of the other director's work on the program.
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