Twisted and uniquely scary

Rating: 9/10 (10 April 2020)

"The Others" is a 2001 mystery horror thriller directed by Alejandro Amenábar starring Nicole Kidman and Christopher Ecclestone. From time to time, I like to revisit some films with an either complicated or twisted story to see if it's even more well constructed than before. One of those titles is definitely this one. Roughly one year ago, I already gave it a spin at a film party and was blown away by it afterwards. With the knowledge of what would happen, this rewatch revealed even more of its subtle brilliance. First of all, the overall style is absolutely well elaborated. An old English mansion, seemingly neverending fog and authentic costumes make this film so tremendously atmospheric, but all of this would be in vain, if it wasn't for the general cinematography. It's the reason the film is so moody in the first place. The contrast between night and day, light and darkness make it come to life so easily. Without it, the film would be much less entertaining. Another factor the film would not work without is the central performance by Australian beauty Nicole Kidman. Not only does she nail the British accent decently, the way she leads the viewer through the subtle horror makes it so genuinely breathtaking. That's where we come to another point: Amenábar's screenplay. It creates such a creepy atmosphere although ... nothing really happens? To be honest, yes. Aside from some one or two scenes, the film completely passes on using graphic effects. There's no monster in this film, no terrifying entity that will haunt you in your dreams afterwards. It instead relies on mild scares and one might think "Isn't that film terribly boring then?". Surprisingly, the total opposite. The film takes place in your head and doesn't resolve what it's dealing with until the very end of the film, but before it reaches the shocking final conclusion there's Kidman who's singlehandedly in charge of creeping out the audience. It's her reactions, her terrified facial expressions that put the viewer in the same position as her and it's this helplessness that also effects the audience that make it so genuinely bone chilling. It's anything but your average ghost story with an obvious threat to escape from, because this threat in here isn't obviously definable. I guess that was what many people back in the day expected to see and why it's fairly underrated by several. It never intended to live from its graphic effects, Amenábar always wanted to terrify the audience just by his phenomenal screenplay. Speaking of which, it's even more brilliant upon a rewatch. Knowing about the mind blowing double plot twist in the end, I realized how it points out countless small hints over the course of the film that actually blatantly give away the ending. It's obvious and subtle at the same time and when it comes to a scene where it should be absolutely clear what really happened, it adds a small detail that makes it ambiguous. It gives the viewer so much information, both true and misleading, but it always makes so much sense nevertheless. This doesn't only happen once, it happens in every single case. I knew that it worked, because my brother who's never seen it before and didn't know about it was genuinely devastated by the ending while I sat there and was like "Oh, he probably has a clue now" a number of times. But he didn't. Another stylistic device of it is the subliminal juxtaposition of religion and atheism, as it at the same time denies and confirms the existence of God. All in all, this intelligently written film is an underrated gem that knows to frighten you without being too graphic. The main reason this film disappointed the expectations of so many is probably how it was advertised, as it is a mystery thriller with horror elements rather than a horror film with thriller elements. But if you're able to put aside those false expectations you're in for a minimalistic but definitely frightening flick that builds up its tension with a spooky scenery and by playing mind games with you. It's psychological thriller in its best form that only uses the supernatural to lead you astray. An underappreciated and well crafted gem.