Perhaps the best of 2001 ...

Rating: 10/10 (6 December 2002)

Like "The Sixth Sense," "The Others" is a somehow melancholy, leisurely exercise in slow-building suspense. Unlike "The Sixth Sense," where those properties were used to good effect and contrast with the modern setting, "The Others" places its characters and their various sadnesses in post-war England. The film, although clearly modern, and extraordinary in its production values, feels and moves like a classic ghost story.
The acting is uniformly amazing. Like Haley Joel Osment, the child actors in "The Others" are accomplished beyond their years. And though I'd always liked Nicole Kidman's charisma, this was the film that made me truly respect her acting.
Finally, make no mistake: slow-paced though it is, dependent on twists and turns it may be, but this movie is truly frightening, in a way that "The Sixth Sense" was not. (And I don't get scared in movies very often.) As I'm typing this, the film is in my VCR; I originally saw it on the big screen. Despite my knowledge of the plot, it's creeped me out enough to have to pause mid-film for a web-surfing-and-review-writing break.
See "The Others." Even if people have "spoiled" it for you, you'll still get remarkable enjoyment from it.