By Tim Wendt
I think there’s room in everyone’s heart (or spine, perhaps?) for a good Ôhaunted house’ thriller. But with recent trash like The Haunting and The House on Haunted Hill (both movies are same-name remakes of far superior films), the genre has gone terrifyingly vapid. The Others, a stylish and spooky film set in a Victorian mansion, is looking to change all that. . . and it succeeds.
Nicole Kidman plays Grace, a woman who is perpetually on the verge of hysterics, and for good reason: her two young children have a rare disorder that requires them to avoid all sunlight; even the smallest amount could kill them. This has her constantly making sure all doors are shut, all curtains are closed, and the location of her children is always in the front of her mind. Set in rural England during World War II, Grace is also dealing with the loss of her husband, who seems to have perished in the war, and three very creepy servants who have recently come to work for her. What is an already neurotic woman to do when she and her children are tormented by the unspeakable?
The reason the film works so well is because it’s based on the principle that Hitchcock perfected: If you don’t know exactly what the terror is, the situation is more terrifying. And suspenseful too. In The Others, you know something is a little off; something is definitely creepy. The question is, what?
The Others features fine performances all around. Kidman is fantastic, as her icy demeanor is reflected in the cold, dark house in which she feels imprisoned. Directed by Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar, The Others marks his English-language debut. Amenabar gives the film a mostly quiet and spooky tone, while occasionally basking in the sudden, all-out, jump-out-of-your-skin scare. Most of The Others is so quiet, you are well aware of every bag of popcorn, every single box of Sno-Caps in the entire theater.
By the time the film reaches its final twist (yes, there are a few), you finally get to put all the events in perspective. And what do you do when you’ve spent most of the film not seeing the something that haunts this house? You replay the film in your mind, and you find that knowing what the something is makes all the difference.
Cardinal grade: A-
