The cinematography of this movie is innovative and brilliant. The lighting is very important as well. In fact, the subject of lights is so well mixed into the story, the dark feels safer and more secure than the light does. This movie takes pride in each scene and each is set up so that you get the most of it. It's set up so masterfully, the shocking ending is the surprise you've been waiting for. The score is also excellent and very fitting.

I've never watched such an eerie and spellbinding movie as this one. It was so spooky at times, it honestly gave me goosebumps. The Others is a fantastic film that is highly recommended!


Superb Thriller!   August 28, 2002
 10 out of 11 found this review helpful

This film wildly illustrates what an incredible mastery of filmmaking a relatively new director like Alejandro Amenabar brings to bear on each of his productions. Previously known as the director for the provocative and memorable Spanish precursor to Tom Cruise's recent film "Vanilla Sky", here Amenabar seams together a perfectly concocted blend of sight, sound and sensation to delight and chill us in "The Others". He's aided and abetted in this marvelous cinematic effort by the superb acting of Nicole Kidmann in a no-holds-barred performance, as well as by a terrific supporting cast of relative unknowns. In addition, everything from the cinematography (that is, the way the director chooses to use the camera to further the mood and affect of the story) and the soundtrack music are all contributing elements in a tour-de-force effort that drags us along breathlessly as the awe-striking plot winds toward its date with destiny.

The outlines of the basic story is seemingly simple and straight-forward, but in matter of fact is full of subtle aspects that subsequently serve to powerfully affect the direction and spin of the events that suddenly and mysteriously begin to malevolently transpire. All of it is believable, due in large part to the work of Kidmann as well as the way in which the director uses every aspect of his craft to set the dark, somber and threatening mood piece we need to work the story toward its conclusion. His use of music to add to the suspense is unusually adroit, and when we realize he has also composed the score being used, we begin to understand the degree to which his range of talents extends.

This is a wonderful movie, one that employs all of the basics of terrific film making extremely well, and one which takes an ostensibly simple idea and then plays with it artfully to stretch our minds and the range of possibilities out before us in a tantalizing and yet horrifying way. It is a movie that is neither predictable nor conventional, yet it movies well within the boundaries of established traditions in such a smart and economical way that it continues to surprise and delight one long after the initial viewing. This one get two thumbs WAY UP! Enjoy!


High Quality Supernatural Horror   April 7, 2008
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

The Others is a psychological thriller set in a haunted house, so don't let the PG-13 rating fool you, this is a hardcore old style horror film. It is far more of a horror film than the blood-soaked money-making trash infiltrating our beloved cinemas every weekend and harkens back in spirit to supernatural classics like The Haunting and The Changeling, which I would also recommend.

Two important things make The Others special. Firstly, the mystery element is so powerful that it is a hard film to watch without finishing. As a lover of horror films I've always felt that horror without mystery descends to madness, and other than for getting a good chuckle while disturbing your wife I would see little reason to watch a movie like that. Gore can work in the right hands but it is rarely a necessity for something to scare this viewer. What is necessary for me is surprise, which The Others is chock full of. It is a smart film. Secondly, another incredibly important element to all films for me is characters that work. That kind of thing requires success on a number of fronts; namely the screenplay, and the actors, but here the cinematography, music, and art direction are just as crucial. It is no coincidence that one mind directed this film in every way as almost every element mends together perfectly. Tom Cruise may have been a producer but he clearly kept his Hollywood ego in check and let director Alejandro Amenabar (Open Your Eyes) run this show his way and his way alone, even if it meant turning Cruise's then-wife into an emotional wreck in doing so. Nicole Kidman was very possibly driven temporarily insane while starring in almost every frame of this movie and looking exhausted as she seems to consume herself in the role. An underrated virtuoso performance for sure in a film that constantly appears alarmingly isolated. I get exhausted for her while watching The Others unfold.

There are so many potentially devastating spoilers to mention in The Others and for those who haven't seen it I should tread carefully. The film is set in a giant house in the Bailiwick of Jersey (a Crown dependency off the coast of Normandy), but I'm not sure if it's the main island or not. It certainly appears isolated enough not to be, and really the house and its vast foggy property are all we have for a setting in The Others anyhow. The film takes place just after World War II. A family of three; Grace (Kidman) and her two children Anne and Nicholas, wait with little hope in their home for Charles, their husband and father, to return from the war. The children have a unique condition that makes them extremely sensitive to sunlit, perhaps even allergic. Their home's light is constantly being carefully controlled and maintained, making for an effective atmosphere of both vulnerability and isolation. I'm sure that the controlled light inside and the surrounding fog of suffocation outside made the film's cinematography an exciting task and Javier Aguirresarobe delivers quite nicely. The house is soon visited by three new servants and the story goes forward with many exciting twists and turns.

As a bit of a horror movie snob I'm going to recommend The Others twice. Another look after you know the twists is definitely worthwhile. Everything comes together just right for the sake of giving us a little scare and some fun surprises. Inexplicably, The Others was also a rare success for a smaller film that seemed to put substance before anything else. It made over $200 million worldwide and cost just $17 million to make. I'm sure that success was anchored to some degree by the film's very famous leading actress but nevertheless, it is nice to see good film-making rewarded with a deserving bonus.


An Atmospheric Ghost Story That Will Forever Be A Classic!   August 28, 2002
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

Nicole Kidman should have been nominated for an Oscar for this film (interesting that Tom Cruise was an Executive Producer). Her acting as well as every member of the cast was exceptional (the kids and Fionnula Flannagan). What a wonderful old-fashioned ghost story with a totally surprise ending only outdone by "The Sixth Sense" which preceeded it. The slow pace builds and builds brilliantly until the heart-stopping ending. Clues are interspersed cleverly and you will find yourself looking back at key scenes just the way you did with "Sixth Sense." I watched it one night and then had two friends over the next. We had a great time. A classic, cerebral ghost story that takes advantage of its sensational sound effects and well-developed atmosphere to project real goosebumps. Well done but not for mind-blown MTVers who want ACTION! and SPECIAL EFFECTS! every 40 seconds.


BOO!!!   January 4, 2003
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

"The Others" is a cinematic rarity these days, a good, old fashioned, ghost story! In fact it's so old fashioned that some of the things you won't find in it are killer cyborgs, acid spewing aliens, or genetically engineered puking dog-thing snot-monsters! But don't worry, because what you will find is a superb story, a clutch of breathtaking performances, and a palpable sense of dread that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat `til the very end.

The story is set during the last years of WWII on an island off the British coast. On this island is a secluded, fog-bound mansion, inhabited by a single mother, who's husband went off to the war, and their two children who suffer from a strange condition, "Xeroderma Pigmentosum," which means they are hyper-sensitive to light. The mansion is permanently shrouded in fog outside, and permanently dark inside, as the heavy drapes in each window are kept permanently shut to protect the children. Any prolonged exposure to full sunlight will result in the children being subjected to blistering, 3rd degree burns, or even death.

The mother, Grace Stewart, a breathtaking performance by Nicole Kidman, is overly protective of the children, to say the very least. She frets and worries incessantly about their condition, and is compulsive in her checking of door-locks, and the security of the drapes over the windows. The children, Anne and Nicholas, luminously portrayed by Alakina Mann and James Bentley, live a stifling twilight existence within the walls of the mansion, dealing as best they can with their medical condition, and the suffocating love of their mother.

As we meet Grace for the first time, screaming herself awake from an unseen nightmare, we can see that she's under incredible pressure, and at the end of her rope. She's barely able to cope with the loss of her husband, the children's condition, and running the mansion single-handedly, the servants having deserted the family a week ago, without even collecting their last weeks pay! But help arrives in the nick-of-time, in the shape of 3 estate workers, a housekeeper, scullery maid, and gardener. Grace is initially suspicious of the 3 as she had yet to post a "Help Wanted" ad in the village shop. The housekeeper, Mrs Mills, wonderfully played by Fionnula Flanagan, explains that they used to work at the mansion in years gone by, and called on the off-chance of finding work, in doubtless trying times.

As if the initial set-up isn't bizarre enough, with the arrival of the new staff things start to get really strange; inexplicable noises, talk of ghosts, a photographic "Book of the Dead," musical instruments playing unaccompanied... and Mrs Mills knows far more than she's letting on, as do the scullery maid and the gardener!

I'm not going to say anything else about the film; I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it already, I'll just say that I'm not ashamed to say I did NOT guess the final twist in the tale! In fact, I actually saw the film twice when it was first released, because the cinema was evacuated about half way through when there was a tornado warning in the area; I couldn't wait to go back and see it again the next day!!!

Much has been said about Nicole Kidman's performance, and I have to say she is amazing! Highly-strung, brittle, compulsive, fiercely protective of her children...and her accent is wonderful! She drives the film relentlessly, along with the performances of Fionnula Flanagan, and the children; James Bentley, as Nicholas, in particular, gives an incredible, jaw-dropping performance. But it's the writing and directing of Alejandro Amenabar that is the secret of "The Others." The story is wonderful, and the direction exemplary; Amenabar builds the tension and sense of dread relentlessly, `til you don't think you can stand it any longer!

This is a 2-disc set, and the "extras" disc contains a couple of interesting items. There's the ubiquitous "making of" feature, and a documentary on a family who's children actually suffer from "Xeroderma Pigmentosum," the disease featured in "The Others." There's also an SFX feature... like I said, no killer cyborgs, snot monsters etc, what SFX?!?!?! I was certainly surprised by the explanation; this film just goes to show how subtle modern CGI effects can be.