In The Dark

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 2004)

The film The Others places the audience in post World War II England where Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) lives with her two children in an isolated mansion. The year is 1945 and Grace struggles to keep her family safe and her sanity in tact, even though her husband set out to fight the war a year and a half earlier and her hired helped disappeared the previous week, complicating her struggle. She finds herself not only in a world of her own, but it is a dark world, as a result of her two children having severe allergies to all light except candlelight. The seclusion is soon broken by the introduction of Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), Mr. Tuttle (Eric Sykes), and Lydia(Elaine Cassidy), three eerie applicants for the hired help positions. The mystery begins and the casts' silent existence quickly transforms as they begin to sense inaccessible intruders in the home. This film probes the thin line between sanity and insanity and how close we all may be to crossing that line if tormented enough. In the same respect, the way we perceive existence may be completely opposite from the reality of it. This movie deals with human psyche from the opening scenes to the climactic ending. The Others is nearly flawless. Constant darkness adds the play of shadow and fog to the story and makes the audience sympathetic to the suffocating life that Grace leads. Due to a lack of pyrotechnic visual effects and blood and gore, this movie is a suspense and thriller instead of a horror flick. Throughout the entire two hours, a full cast of approximately twelve people are introduced, once again running with the theme of solitude. Innuendos all through the story leading up to a surprise ending make watching this movie a second time a must. Writer and Director Alejandro Amenabar has resorted to simplicity, creating a fresh and thought provoking mystery.