Though scaries are not my favourite genre, there is no denying we have a new genius here

Rating: 7/10 (29 September 2001)

I do not usually go in for anything in the phantasmagoric line; even very few horror films have attracted my attention. This is primarily because I like theatre and cinema to be rather realist, I like it to say something about the world we live in, society, personalities, human values, and so on. I do not look for escapism as a source of entertainment, whether in books, on the stage or on the screen. However, there are a few exceptions to this general rule - `Gormenghast' by Mervyn Peake, `The Lord of the Rings' by J.R.R.Tolkien (I am not referring to the film), and of course the universal `Cien Años de Soledad' by Gabriel García Márquez, among books, or Walt Disney's `Fantasia'. Such that the run-of-the-mill factory-produced science-fiction films generally do not attract me either - exceptions being Stanley Kubrick's `2001: A Space Odyssey' and Ridley Scott's `Bladerunner'.
Alejandro Amenábar might change my preferences a little; having seen `Abre los Ojos' (qv) only very recently, I was persuaded rather perfunctorily to go and see `Los Otros' the other night, and did not expect much from what seemed a priori to be merely a `ghost story'. Which is precisely what `Los Otros' turned out to be. But directed and written by a young fellow who also composed the music and seems bent on updating Hitchcockian traditions: Alejandro Amenábar is an extraordinary and highly talented young man. The curious mixture of British Actors with Nicole Kidman, recorded in English, but is a Spanish film, makes it evident that Amenábar had his sights aimed at America. However, the film was not shot on Jersey Island in the English Channel, but in a large `caserón' a few kilometres inland from the Cantabrian Coast in Santander, Northern Spain. The photography at all times, but especially through the fog, is spectacular, but Javier Aguirresarobe is already a past master, having already filmed `Secretos del Corazón' (qv), `La Niña de tus Ojos' (qv), `El Perro del Hortelano', `Beltenebros' and `La Fuente Amarilla' (qv), among other titles. Nicole Kidman is pretty good; she plays the part of a mother of two children who is somewhat nervous, even hysterical, as she goes through the house opening and closing the doors as she goes. `Her' two children are very good: Alakina Mann and James Bentley play their parts with a good balance between naturalness and interpretation without exceeding too much in the latter.
And the music is extraordinarily good as it accompanies the different scenes, never overdoing any set leit-motif, with some fine orchestration - although in this I think Amenábar had a helping hand from others. There were moments in which subconsciously some influence could be felt from John Barry perhaps, and I also noted a brief passage that seemed to have roots in the Portuguese `fado'. As Rolling Stone Magazine says, this is a psychological thriller; a little in the Clive Barker style but without all that gore, or even certain concepts from some of Stephen King's works in which `the thing' itself is not so ominously present. But, certainly, if Hitchcock WAS the master, surely we have here a new one? Make space over there at Hollywood - a new little genius is about to cross the Atlantic. Unfortunately.