The Others is a psychological thriller ghost story starring nicole kidman

"THE OTHERS"
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flannigan, Alakina Mann, James Bentley
Rated: PG-13
Score: 8.5/10

"There's something in this house.
Something....diabolic."

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Once in awhile a good chiller comes along. Not one which relies on graphic images and gore, but good old fashioned suspense. In "The Others", Grace is the mother of two special children. They have a disorder where they are allergic to light, so all curtains must be drawn, all doors must be locked. She lives in a huge house with many rooms, and one afternoon three visitors arrive at her door looking for work. She hires them on, explicitely telling them the importance of her rules to protect her children.

Her daughter is insistant she see's things in the house, but Grace is a practical woman who does not believe such nonsense. She is god fearing and wants her children to be on the right path. But soon things begin happening, which throw her into a rage for she cannot find out who is responsible behind them. Are the new employees behind them? For they have been mysterious, nobody can explain how they just showed up and knew there was work available - for the last group of nanny's and such dissapeared..without a trace. When you live in darkness, how long will it take before you wonder if you are alone in it. Will you ever see the light?

The tone of the film is one of..anticipation. These days people are always in such a hurry to know what is really going on, and they want to see behind every corner. But this film doesn't allow you to, it gradually gives you insight little by little, however the suspense hangs like a musical note in the air as you draw breath and wait. It succeeds at scaring, as half the audience in various scenes were screaming or leaping from their chairs...then laughing afterward at how easy it seemed to get them..even if they knew it was coming. Because the film never allows you to feel at ease. In fact one way it draws you in is when you notice the unusual things that Grace does. She hears whispering, and it's so cleverly muffled and distant in the silence of the scene that for a moment you wonder if you hear it. You tilt your head, at first you assume it's audience members. But is it?

All this suspense does pay off to a very climactic ending. Some of the dialogue was a bit of a stretch (it: "sometimes the world of the living and the dead get mixed up") but it's the sort you'd expect from such a movie. I had one problem towards middle to end with a character being introduced that I felt was not only a distraction but an irresponsible spoiler. It gets a PG-13 rating most likely for being frightening. But I saw young kids, which is ok if your child can handle scary movies. It contains no profanity, no graphic or gore..and can be compared more to the classic popcorn films that had you curled up waiting to be frightened. The style in which it's told is quite like a classic scary novel. Only because when we read those novels they didn't reveal much and left alot to our imagination, which was scarier than anything that could have been described. The film leaves behind the easy route of boogymen leaping out, axes flying, blood splatters, satan and cats leaping from closed cabinets. Worth seeing.

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