The Others

I already knew the twist. In case someone does read this....hello......HELLO....I'm alone right? Anyway if someone DOES read this then I wont give away the twist, it's a good twist though.

So this is post "The Sixth Sense" movies for a while thought they had to have a big twist, so I will give it a pass for being slightly heavy handed in that respect. A woman named Grace is looking for a new staff to take over when her other employees just left. She own a fairly large estate and since she has money she can pay other people to do the domestic things for her while she reads or sleeps, or whatever. She gets a few new employees and upon showing them around explains the house rules including if one door is open then all others must be closed and locked. Strange, yes, until we find out about her kids, they have a severe reaction to sunlight, if exposed even for a short amount of time they could die.

This sets up the mood for the rest of the film, with the house being a fortress closed off from almost all light we are left to see the house only where they have candles, many dark corners form. Scary enough for kids like that, but then add onto it that they say there are other people in the house. Strange noises are heard, doors open and close on their own, and so starts the fight to find out whats going on.

I remember seeing the trailer for this and being marginally interested, but not enough to pay to see it. People had told me it was good, but still I wasn't really compelled to see it. I thought it was about time to see what the fuss was about. It wasn't the amazing movie I was led to expect, but it was better than it could have been with a weaker cast or script.

The gimmick of the kids allergy is great for giving a real reason why the house needs to be dark. I was happy about that, so many times sitting there in other movies you wonder why not just hit a light switch. Nicole Kidman is good in just about everything, she is good at playing the anal mother and in this instance plays it as well as you can, pushing the threshold of annoyance and overbearing.

Its worth a glance, but not something that needs to be seen. 7/10 stars.

Director: Alejandro Amenabar

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula, Alakina Mann, James Bentley, Eric Sykes, Elaine Cassidy