Eschewing the mayhem of most Hollywood horror stories, Alejandro Amenabar makes the fears of Grace and her children vivid and palpable.
The Others (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:146
Fresh:122
Rotten:24
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: The Others is a spooky thriller that reminds us that a movie doesn't need expensive special effects to be creepy.
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: THE OTHERS begins with a close-up of a woman screaming. By the time this intense film ends, everyone watching it will be screaming and gasping. Nicole Kidman stars as Grace, a woman raising two... THE OTHERS begins with a close-up of a woman screaming. By the time this intense film ends, everyone watching it will be screaming and gasping. Nicole Kidman stars as Grace, a woman raising two children by herself in a creepy mansion. World War II is over, but Grace's husband never returned. Meanwhile, the two children, Anne and Nicholas, must constantly stay in the dark because they are deathly allergic to light. Then one day three people show up to take over for Grace's disappeared staff, and trouble starts to brew. The odd trio--an aging nanny, an elderly gardener, and a young mute girl--seems to have a slightly different agenda than Grace and the children do. But when Anne starts talking to strange, unseen people, the scares start building to an incredible climax. Alejandro Amenábar's highly stylized English-language debut is one of the better haunted-house films of the past few years. Not only did Amenábar write and direct the film but he composed the eerie music as well. Nicole Kidman is outstanding as the overprotective mother trying to save her children, while Fionnula Flanagan excels as the nanny with a deep, dark secret. Because the children must remain in darkness, Grace must lock every door behind her, to make sure that the children don't accidentally enter a brightly lit room; it is a marvelous horror-film device that Amenábar uses to perfection. [More]
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Elaine Cassidy
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Elaine Cassidy, Eric Sykes, Kames Bentley, Renée Asherson, Alakina Mann, Andrew Wagner
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Screenwriter: Alejandro Amenábar
Composer: Alejandro Amenábar
Studio: Dimension Films
Reviews for The Others
The Others is what The Haunting and The Sixth Sense should have been.
Amenabar, a master of suspenseful pacing, takes his time allowing the layers of perception to be removed.
The Others stands apart merely for recognizing that animatronic gargoyles are no substitute for unhinged neuroses.
Everything is designed to service a finale more complex than what preceded without it.
The acting is fine all around. Kidman makes for a hair-raising neurotic, and the child actors give subtly nuanced performances.
A stylish attention-getter, the movie eventually wears you out without offering that much.
Its pleasures are subtle and suggestive -- it sticks with you because it knows that the scariest things are the ones you can't see.
Amenábar expertly lays on the atmosphere and suspense, guiding the action ever-so-subtly until it raises the hairs on the back of your neck.
When it comes to turning the screws of psychological terror, Amenebar is an expert technician.
The film is beautiful to behold but lacking in any kind of palpable dread or suspense.
The movie has a scary/seductive visual allure, and the mystery of the invisible boy gains power as Amenabar allows it to deepen, ever so slightly, from scene to scene.
The Others is a horror movie in which the scary elements are all psychological, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sometimes jolt the senses.
The gimmicks, in the end, are too arbitrary to tie together in a memorably haunting fashion, though they do culminate in a Big Twist, a nifty one that almost -- but not quite -- makes you want to see the movie again.
The Others has so many touches reminiscent of The Sixth Sense that it becomes distracting.
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