Well meaning but predictable

Rating: Null/10 (6 September 2001)

The makers of this film sought, in part, to create a mature and intelligent blurring of the line between the "living" and the "dead." Unfortunately this formula has become trite, and this is what inevitably causes "The Others" to be compared with movies like "The Sixth Sense" (which I found equally predictable and disappointing). I had hoped for more originality, a new "Haunting of Hill House," perhaps, or "Turn Of The Screw." Alas, 20 minutes into the story, the ending of "The Others" was obvious. And its ending is depressing. Stories involving supernatural themes edify us most when they are uplifting as well as thought-provoking (e.g., "The Secret Garden"). If they are not uplifting, then they chronicle a descent into madness, and we already see too much of that in everyday life. A voyage through hell is only valuable when it is used to reveal the Light. This is especially true today, for as a society we are not bored and wish to be deliciously scared; instead we are stressed out and wish for some indication that peace and sanity are still possible. No such indication is provided by "The Others."
Regarding the movie's set decoration and camera work, these are passable but not on par with even so much as the recent "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." And the use of relentless white fog to suggest inter-worldly limbo has been around at least since 1944's "Between Two Worlds." No real originality there. Nonetheless, the trashier a summer-cinema season, the more elegant any alternative like "The Others" becomes by sheer comparison.

The main value of "The Others" lies in what it reveals about our culture's growing pessimism about virtually everything, including life after death. "Ghost" had a positive ending, but since its release in 1990, almost all stories involving supernatural topics (other than gratuitous horror flicks that entertain because they are hilariously awful) do not have characters going to Heaven, or even hell. There is no longer any Light, God, or Savior. The afterlife consists only of an endless, dreary, solitary limbo. The basic difference between this world and the next is that in the latter, we are each exposed as neurotic losers after all. Thus, movies with Satanic elements fail today because we have no divine elements to look forward to. Death only brings us eternal drabness and solitude. Even cinematic romances today mostly hinge on doomed love (e.g., "The English Patient," "Bridges Of Madison County," etc.) All we can do any more is hang on and grapple with our mounting anxieties. "The Others" might have used this reality as a springboard to suggest some fresh pathway to salvation. Instead, we have another example of political correctness applied to a supernatural theme, wherein we are asked why we and ghosts "can't just get along" in our mutually mirroring limbos. What a downer.