Details
Movie Description
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.
Film Notes
Theatrical release: August 10, 2001
Industry Reviews
"...An absorbing ghost story with a twist ending of SIXTH SENSE proportions..." -- 4 out of 5 stars
Box Office - p.56 - Annlee Ellingson (08/01/2001)
"...A luxuriously old-fashioned star vehicle custom fit to its topliner's strengths, which come across to sensational effect....A delicious goose-pimpler..."
Variety - p.43-52 - Dennis Harvey (08/13/2001)
"...The movie has a busy, throttling intensity that takes off from the elegant fury of Kidman..."
Entertainment Weekly - p.44-5 - Owen Gleiberman (08/17/2001)
"...Mr. Amenabar's command of the syntax of fright is impressive....Ms. Kidman embodies this unstable amalgam with a conviction that is in itself terrifying..."
New York Times - p.E1 - A. O. Scott (08/10/2001)
"...Kidman is rage to the sixth power....Masterfully shot..."
USA Today - p.6E - Mike Clark (08/10/2001)
"...Elegantly and deliberately made, reeking of mood and creepiness, it relishes its atmosphere of genteel menace..."
Los Angeles Times - p.2 - Kenneth Turan (08/10/2001)
"...Amenabar's expert script rings enough changes on genre conventions to keep aficionados guessing....[A] terrific thriller..."
Sight and Sound - p.53-4 - Paul Julian Smith (11/01/2001)
"...Plainly there is more going on here than meets the eye....Sit back and enjoy the deliciously clammy chills..."
Total Film - p.88-9 - Jamie Graham (12/01/2001)
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