Talk us through itIt's 1945 and Grace Stewart along with her two children, the smart mouthed Anne and constantly nervous Nicholas, live in a rambling pile on Jersey Island. Grace is waiting for her husband to return from the war, we assume he got caught up with Capt Jack Harkness, but is gradually losing hope of him return. Both Kids are sensitive to the light, they go into decomposition mode if exposed, so Grace is constantly ensuring the curtains are draw and the only light source is from oil burning lamps. Her constant mantra is to close and lock one door before opening another, and keep those bloody drapes closed. Naturally the kids are on the home schooling stream, though it's got to be said our Grace is something of a bible thumper with lessons slightly on the weird side of things. Anne has been hearing things and seeing people who aren't there, Grace naturally doesn't believe her, while Nicholas is constantly on the verge of needing a change of undies. When three servants arrive, the previous help having departed, strange things start to happen. Even Grace is shaken out of her comfort zone as mysterious voices are heard, doors shut by themselves, and generally things start going all Amityville on Jersey. Is the house haunted or has Grace got a good reason for loading up the shotgun?
Review"Sometimes the world of the living gets mixed up with the world of the dead." - Mrs MillsRegular readers will probably already know that I love me a haunted house tale. There's just something diabolically cool about the concept of locking yourself in with "them", at night, hopefully with a raging tempest outside. So I was in hog heaven when The Others rattled it's chain on the review pile, specially as Nicole Kidman starred, meaning ScaryMinds could get down and funky with the movie. I actually originally caught this film at the cinemas during its sensationally good run Down Under, but have to admit the more I view the movie the more I get out of it. Probably also helping is the former Mrs Timmy Cruise throwing on her best ever performance, outside the whole "Tom isn't gay" thing of course. Enough from me let's see what might be walking the halls at midnight. 
Director Alejandro Amenábar, here making his first English language film, is of course well known as a Director in his native Spain. Based on Amenábar's work here my suggestion to Hollywood would be to quit the remakes like Quarantine and fly in some actual Spanish film makers to scare up some box office action. Amenábar has The Others on a firm lease, knows where things are going, drops clues along the way, and allows absolutely nothing to get in the way of the atmosphere he is creating. In simple terms, The Others is pure genius and a blue print on how to construct a movie that will unnerve it's Audience. Surprisingly, I think the Brit author Ramsay Campbell is about the only other person who has attempted this, the majority of the movie's running time is during the day. The house, where most of the action goes down, is perpetually fogged bound, the interior is always one stroke away from midnight due to the heavy drapes covering the windows, and the only source of light is the lamps Grace uses since the electricity went with the Nazi occupation of the Island. We are in a surreal environment, a sort of Disneyland designed by Stephen King. What Director Amenábar achieves here is taking out the dubious comfort of daytime. Anything could happen at any time, a major scare scene could be lurking around every corner. The overall mood the Director creates is very much a gothic show piece, where suggestion is infinitely more terrifying than sudden jump scenes. The Others thusly becomes a richly textured experience for the viewer and thrives on its traditional haunted house tropes. The Others pretty much is a throwback to 1960s styled ghost movies in both construction and feeling. 
In other hands the various scary elements might seem slightly to trite to warrant a serious discussion but Amenábar knows exactly what he is doing and how to present traditional elements in a new framework. As a sidenote I'm writing this review on a train travelling through a particular mist laden Hawkesbury Valley, now how cool is that. Okay so we get doors that shut by themselves, sometimes violently, a piano apparently intent on playing by its self, disconnected voices, and the sounds of people walking overhead. Added gravy comes via the new Servants clearly know more than they are saying, one real spooky old lady that pops up on a few occasions, and a book of the dead with photos of corpses. Amenábar has his horror on and builds the movie nicely as things escalate, culminating I think in all the drapes disappearing from the windows suddenly. It's hard to actually pick when things reach a head in The Others. Grace is frantic about the curtain situation and beside herself, there are discovers to be made and the Director delivers on them forcefully in a number of shocking plot twists. Right from the start of The Others we know we are in for something special, and a repeat viewing will really nail that barn door shut. Grace wakes from an unexplained nightmare and meets the traditionally gloomy English servants who appear to have walked directly out of a Dickens's novel. Okay I'm not going to be amused by Adam's Family jokes here so just shut your piehole. Grace goes through the whole keeping doors shut speech, in terms of "Anal Weekly" Grace is the pinup girl, and we learn that things like reality don't really intrude on Grace's life. Amenábar masterfully introduces the children, there's a heightened feeling of anticipation there helped by Mrs. Mills seemingly expecting something more than the two spooky kids the English landed gentry give to Queen and Country in disturbing abundance. There's a feeling from the start of the movie that things are slightly off center, a growing sense of the surreal will infuse events right through to the ultimate revelations. About the only break between Grace being her demented cat bottomed mouth self and the rising supernatural activities of "the intruders" is the surprise arrival of Grace's rather shell shocked husband. There's a major hint going down here and surprisingly Charles Stewart arrives as Grace makes her only attempt to leave the confines of her property. It's actually a pretty tight plot development, avoids anything in the way of spoilers, and adds a well needed break from Grace's ongoing attempts to antagonise everyone in sight. 
Writer/Director Amenábar delivers a character driven story that will ask the Audience to think about what they are seeing. The overall feeling the Director conjures up is one of sadness and melancholy, The Others is a traditional horror yarn made for lovers of the genre. Nicole Kidman (Grace Stewart) is simply all over the movie, great swaths of screen time are spent with her character, and for mine this is her finest moment. Kidman nails Grace's vacillation between being maternal and being quite frankly a bitch monster from hell. Fionnula Flannagn (Mrs Bertha Mills) is all over the whole "Servant who knows what really goes down" admirably, I enjoyed ever moment Flannagn was on screen. Alakina Mann (Anne Stewart) holds her own and had me believing. And James Bentley (Nicholas Stewart) is up for the task, very English role going down there. Special mention of Christopher Eccleston (Charles Stewart) who doesn't have a lot to do here but presents a tortured character that screams out something is wrong with the whole scenario. Repeat viewing will add more depth to some of Eccleston's dialogue, it's a superb performance taken in context of the overall movie. And yes that Eric Sykes was the gardener Edmund Tuttle. Alejandro Amenábar also delivered the creepy and note worthy score that underlines some of the inherently menacing scare scenes. Adds to the atmosphere and had me rocking along to the bebop.
Summary ExecutionOne of the great modern ghost stories, The Others is all about atmosphere and sound rather than cheap parlour tricks. Director/Writer Alejandro Amenábar takes time to build a largely character driven movie that captivated me from the opening scene to the closing credits. One of the few horror movies I've seen that gets better with repeat screenings. Wonderful stuff and quite rightly viewed as art in serious movie circles.The Others managed to make well over $10 million Down Under as local Audiences dialled into something pretty special. It had been a long time between drinks since the last dark genre film made an impact at the Box Office. Naturally The Others has come under criticism for being too slow, for having plot holes, and gosh for not being everything it could be for the small attention span Audience. Sorry folks this movie is made for lovers of gothic cinema and will hit the spot for anyone who enjoys quality horror rather than the cheap knock off conveyor stuff Hollywood spews out each month for ravenous Bogan horde consumption. If you want something more than a movie that simply goes "boo" every few moments, then I would suggest scoring a copy of The Others and sitting down to the best haunted house movie since The Changeling. Full recommendation to film lovers, regardless of normal genre of choice.
ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ... Almost the perfect haunted house movie, Kidman stuns surprisingly.
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