Nicole Kidman in THE OTHERS
© 2001 Dimension Films

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THE OTHERS

Funny how no one has tried to learn by example. Audiences obviously want to be scared, but you would expect that others would have tried to match that formula and run it in to the ground by now. The reason though is obvious: no one really knows what a scary movie is. Most of Hollywood looked at THE SIXTH SENSE as a fluke. It's easy to carbon copy a SCREAM or even a silly teen comedy, but real horror ahhh, it's a lost art.

Thankfully, writer-director Alejandro Amenabar was up to the task. The Spanish director, whose last film was the eerie OPEN YOUR EYES (and is now being remade with Tom Cruise as VANILLA SKY under the direction of Cameron Crowe), segues into his first English language movie and has made a ghost story as old fashioned as they come. It owes a lot in spirit to Henry James' TURN OF THE SCREW, but there's more here than meets the eye.

Nicole Kidman plays Grace, a woman living in isolation in an English mansion shortly after World War II. Her two children (Alakina Mann, James Bentley) have a rare disorder that make them vulnerable to light and she's having a difficult time accepting that her husband is unlikely to return from the war. When three former servants offer their services to the quite lonely mansion, Grace takes them up on it. However, things turn quite creepy when there's more to the servants' presence than meets the eye. There is also the ghost of a young boy (among others) haunting the house and terrorizing Grace's children. She's a bit hesitant to believe them at first, but slowly the truth behind the secret of the house is revealed.

Many will be talking about the film's trick ending but the real miracle here is that Alejandro Amenabar has fashioned THE OTHERS into a genuinely scary film. Amenabar creates a solid mood from beginning to end. It's thematically similar to THE SHINING in that he gives the house a personality of its own and soaks up the nuances of every corner of this place. It's a character in its own right, an effect very hard to achieve especially in a movie like this which is so deliberately paced.

Kidman also gives a stunning performance. Her character is very strict and her religious upbringing of her children is just as terrifying as the ghosts in the house. Only Kidman could make a character like this so likable, yet so terrifying all at once. This is truly one of the year's best performances, but because it's buried in what will be no doubt be considered a genre film, she might very well be overlooked come Oscar time (or given a consolation nod for her equally adept work in MOULIN ROUGE, though her performance here is leaps and bounds the harder of the two).

Old-fashioned is such a harsh word to use for a Hollywood film. It scares off audiences, but THE OTHERS is just that. Its most distant film relative is 1961's THE INNOCENTS (which was based on TURN OF THE SCREW), and that film also utilized spooky sounds and well-choreographed moments to jolt an audience.

Those expecting a loud, hit-you-over-the-head type of movie, don't look for THE OTHERS to deliver the goods. Instead, it's a quiet movie that challenges you to stay with it. And even if you do figure out its twist an hour away, the film's tonal consistency makes up for it. It's a film that defies all of today's conventional movie wisdom louder, bigger, faster and delivers a little gem the way they used to make them -- smart, tight and scary. And boy, has a film like this been a long time coming.