Boo!

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 2001)

The "twisty-chiller" is the new buzz-genre in film, filling the gap left over from the "self-referential-nudge-wink-slasher-movie" genre that died with Scream 3, Scary Movie II and Sorry, But I Am Still Aware of Your Activities A Number of Summers Ago. The key elements: no gore, minimal special effects, twisty plots, pervading atmosphere of foreboding, scary young children.
Nicole Kidman is a bit of a weird hermit whose kids are allergic to light. She's not a terribly nice lady: she seems to enjoy locking her kids in the dark all day and scaring them with stories about hell, purgatory and limbo. She's also done something quite nasty - something we don't find out the truth about until the very end of the film. Her kids are allergic to light, so naturally they are very pale skinned and a little bit disturbed - particularly the girl, who seems nice enough, but has a strange tendency to turn into an old woman from time to time.
Into their cosy little world come three strangers, who may or may not be the "others" of the title. They seem nice enough, but they have a strange tendency to cover all the gravestones in the garden with leaves and wander around looking shifty.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot, because there's not much of it anyway, and what plot there is would be spoiler material if I posted it here. Most of the movie is given over to building the creepy atmosphere and setting up the denoument. If all this makes the movie sound dull, sorry - it's certainly not dull. Of all the "chillers" I've seen recently, this was probably the most chilling, and while the ending doesn't have the impact of the Sixth Sense for example, you certainly won't feel cheated either.
8/10 (points off for giving Keith Allen paid work)