Creepy movie builds taut by showing virtually eerie images , unsettling score and evocative cinematography

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2014)

Thrilling and surprising story full of chills , plot twists , intrigue and excitement . The movie opens with Nicole Kidman, in voice-over, reading a story. She begins with the words, "Now children, are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin." As a woman named Grace Stewart who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive (it is very strange with roughly a thousand people in the world that have it) children (the disease they have is an actual disease known as Xeroderma Pigmentosum). Grace , whose husband (Christopher Eccleston) has never returned from the war , becomes convinced that her family home (the house - supposedly on the island of Jersey - is actually located in the north of Spanish , in Las Fraguas , Cantabria , Palace of Hornillos) haunted while overprotecting her two young children (Alakina Mann and James Bentley were cast after an intensive search that encompassed 5,000 children). They will live alone there with oppressive, rare and almost religious rules , until she needs to hire a group of servants (Eric Sykes as Mr. Edmund Tuttle , Elaine Cassidy as Lydia and Fionnula Flanagan as Mrs. Bertha Mills) for them .
The motion picture displays genuine chills , suspense, mystery and dark atmosphere with a twisted finale . Packs excellent creation of tension , thriller , emotions and terror . It's an exciting , bizarre film ; skillfully written and proceeded by Alejandro Amenabar and turns out to one of the most unusual Spaniard suspense movie ever made and certainly one of the most unsettling .The basis for this movie is an episode of the British series 'Armchair Theatre' called 'The Others' made in 1970 and remade as a movie called 'Voices' in 1972 , this version is more elaborate but the story is the same. ¨Los Otros¨ comes from a peculiar cross-section of production cultures ; it stars an Australian woman playing an Englishwoman ; it was written and directed by a Spaniard, backed by Americans, set in Jersey but filmed in Spain. Plenty of twists and turns , the strange images deliver the excitement united a thrilling musical score by the same Alejandro Amenabar . He along with screenwriter Mateo Gil appear in one of the photographs of dead people . Furthermore , Alejandro also wrote the interesting plot , embarking into the phantasmagorical, psychological or even quasi-surrealist story . Intelligent edition, special use of luxurious sets by Benjamin Fernandez and slick utilization of shock images make this one, a magnificent film . Colorful and glowing cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe which heightens the suspense . This was the first film ever to receive the Best Film Award at the Goyas (Spain's national film awards) with not a single word of Spanish spoken in it and his film went on after its release , to become Spain's biggest grossing domestic film of all time. The film opened in the US at number 4 in the box office charts and stayed around that figure for its initial run. Seven weeks into release it actually climbed up to the number 2 spot.
The picture was very well directed by Amenabar in his third movie, after he achieved various hits . Since his perhaps best-known early short-film "Himenóptero" in 1992, in which he directed , produced, acted and wrote the script and the music, Amenábar progressed and reached his first commercial success in 1996 with "Thesis", Amenabar was 23 when he directed this his feature debut , a film which undoubtedly showed that a major new director had arrived on the scene . And ¨Abre Los Ojos¨ that was remade in Hollywood by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky (2001), starring Tom Cruise who in ¨The others¨ was executive producer along with Paula Wagner and this marked the last collaboration between Cruise and Nicole Kidman prior to their divorce . ¨Los Otros¨ (2001) was released a few months prior to Vanilla Sky (2001), the American remake of 'Alejandro Amenabár''s Abre Los Ojos (1997). Ironically, it starred Nicole Kidman's then estranged husband Tom Cruise . "Los Otros" confirmed his arrival in the cinematographic world and is Amenábar's first English language film and was the highest grossing Spanish film in the all-time worldwide box office history . In all his films Alejandro also writes the script and the music, as well as composing the music for other films , most notably "Butterflies tongue" (1999). He subsequently directed ¨Mar Adentro¨ with the Oscarized Javier Bardem and finally the epic/historical ¨Agora¨ with Rachel Weisz . Rating : Better than average . Essential and indispensable watching .