Boo!

Rating: Null/10 (30 August 2001)

Remember seeing The Blair Witch Project for the first time, and wondering what all the hype was about? You know, just a bunch of kids running around in the dark, screaming at twigs and stuff. Well, this film has the kind of creepiness that BW was going for -- but this one actually works!
The Others is just a fine, simple, well-told haunted house/ghost story. Most people probably know the plot by now, so I won't bother here. Suffice to say, the story doesn't break new ground and, in fact, uses one of the oldest clichés in the book for the big payoff (which you may recognize from another recent scary movie). However, it does it with enough style and Grace (heh) that you won't even care. There's no gore in this -- well, there's one bit that utilizes makeup very effectively, but it pretty much doesn't count as a gore scene, really -- and the lack of light and the antiquated setting are really well used to make you think that stuff is indeed going bump in the night.
Yes, it's a sometimes slow movie (especially near the start), but I liken The Others to Alien. Nothing happens in either movie for the first 45-minutes or so either, and it just made you all the more paranoid when things *did* start moving.
My only complaint is I was able to figure out 90 per cent of the climax half-way through the film (right around the fog scene in fact) -- although there is one *final* twist that is sheer unexpected genius. And the acting, writing and cinematography are all quite brilliant and above par. Barring any major competition in the next four months, I'd dare say that this film has a good chance of picking up quite a few Oscar nods.
Really, go see this one. It's the only movie so far this year worth paying full price for and, truthfully, I judge a movie by how many times I check my watch. I never looked at it during The Others. Not once.