One of the least appreciated ingredients for a successful film career is good timing. Having a great idea for a film will be less important if the same idea was used before, even by someone less talented. This happened with Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar with his 2001 horror film The Others.
The plot is set in 1945 in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands which had been occupied by Germans during the recently ended Second World War. Those events are, however, of little concern to Grace Stewart (played by Nicole Kidman), a woman who lives in a remote country house. She has two children – Anne (played by Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (played by James Bentley) – who suffer from an extreme form of photosensitivity. Grace, whose husband Charles (played by Christopher Eccleston) is considered missing in action while fighting in the British Army, is extremely protective of her children and doesn't allow not only sunlight, but electricity and other modern appliances in the house. She, however, needs house help and it comes in the form of housekeeper Mrs. Bertha Mills (played by Fionnula Flanagan), gardener Edmund Tuttle (played by Eric Sykes) and a mute girl named Lydia (played by Elaine Cassidy). Grace's children soon begin to experience all kinds of strange phenomena, while Anne claims that she met a strange family, including a boy named Victor (played by Alexander Vince) who claims that the house is theirs. Grace begins to confront the possibility that her house is haunted.
The Others was the first English-language film for Amenábar, who, thanks to imaginative thrillers Thesis and Open Your Eyes, had gained a reputation as one of the best Spanish filmmakers of his generation. His script uses a relatively simple template of Gothic ghost story to create an exciting horror film that looks "old school" in a positive sense. Instead of cheap shocks and CGI effects, Amenábar effectively creates an atmosphere of dread and mystery, while also engaging viewers' brains and allowing them to draw their own conclusions about what is going on. Amenábar can also rely on a relatively small but effective cast which includes Nicole Kidman in one of her more demanding roles. Kidman who, according to her own statements, actually didn't want the role because it was too dark and "giving her nightmares", is very good, but veteran Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan is much more impressive in the role of a housekeeper who apparently knows more than she is willing to tell. The Others is a very good film, but the ending is somewhat too abrupt and less satisfactory than the rest of the film would indicate. But the worst problem for Amenábar is that the major plot twist of his film is not exactly original and that it was used by M. Night Shyamalan two years earlier in The Sixth Sense. More perceptive viewers and even those who haven't seen Shyamalan's film might not be that surprised by the twist, but Amenábar nevertheless manages to keep the film looking fresh and original. Although it didn't make much of an impression at the US box office, it was a massive hit in Amenábar's native Spain and established a box office record that would remain unsurpassed for more than a decade.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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