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The Others An eerie little atmospheric thriller, set on a perpetually foggy English estate in the mid-1940s, The Others begins with a tour of the manor house given to three new, slightly mysterious servants. The previous servants had disappeared without a trace the previous week. And the servants aren't the only strange things about the place. The house itself is isolated, by the ubiquitous fog, and by its island location (Jersey). The father never returned from the war, leaving the young wife alone to take care of two small children. The children are allergic to light, requiring all of the curtains to be drawn when they're in the room, and only one door to a room be open at a time in an attempt to contain the light. The omnipresent darkness, fog, and quiet (not even the piano may be used) build up a slightly oppresive atmosphere, at first claustrophobic- but nothing in this movie is what it seems, and many things which seem familiar from other horror movies get turned upside-down. Most obviously, the fact that the children are only safe in the dark makes darkness much more comforting than light. In one scene, all the drapes are taken down and the children and mother spend several minutes hiding in the shadows. Only when the sun is safely shut out can they, or we, relax. There are many twists and turns in the plot, which I can't say very much about without spoiling it. Suffice it to say that the little girl has started to see members of another family in the house-she calls them 'the others.' Noone else can see them, but various disturbances are evident to everyone before long-sounds, lights, doors closing and opening, drapes being opened and closed, etc. The Others will probably be placed in the horror genre, and it is a horror movie in a certain sense. It is certainly a ghost story, and is quite creepy. But it has little in common with current horror flicks. There are no murders, no blood, no knives, no guns, no corpses. A much better comparison can be made to British films of the 1940s, both horror and otherwise. I am thinking of the Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger films in particular--I Know Where I'm Going, Black Narcissus, Dead of Night, and the like. In all of these films, the atmosphere and location is nearly a character. I would add in the original The Haunting from 1963, but caution against identification with the overly done 1999 remake. This is not to say that The Others is out-of-date or archaic. But it is certainly old-fashioned. And I mean that in a good way. It is not held up with contemporary references or anything else that would date it in any way. It will be just as good in 2050 as it was last week. Nicole Kidman turns in a fine performance as the lady of the house, suffering from the loss of her husband, her own isolation, her strained relationship with her daughter, her childrens's very special condition, and her seeming mental instabilities, not to mention the strange occurences in her home. She is the only big name actor in the film, the others being very fine, but not well known, British actors. I urge you to check out The Others. I can't guarantee that you'll enjoy it as much as I did, especially if you're into the more slasher-style horror films such as Scream or Halloween. The Others is much more understated and psychological in nature-in style, more The Sixth Sense than I Know What You Did Last Summer. I think it's a welcome change. ***1/2 out of **** Page last updated 9/30/04. |
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