Not that surprising or clever but still an enjoyable and effectively chilling ghost story

Rating: Null/10 (13 January 2005)

There are 50 doors in Grace Stewart's house and she insists each one must be locked before another is unlocked. Her two children (Anne and Nicholas) are photosensitive and the curtains must always be drawn before they enter the room. Together Grace and her two children live in constant pray that husband and father Charles will somehow return safely from the war. Into the house comes new staff  Mr Tuttle who tends the garden, the mute Lydia and housekeeper Mrs Mills. With her mother's strict teachings and religious slant, Anne confides in Mrs Mills about her sightings of other people, where Grace would punish her for such stories. However it is not long before Grace struggles to understand the noises she hears and things she sees.
This review contains no spoilers but I would question why anyone would want to know more about this film before watching it; you know the genre and knowing more can only spoil it for you albeit slightly. I'm not sure why I never got around to seeing this film in the cinema but somehow it slipped my mind and I was surprised to find it on the television recently as it only seemed that it was out recently. Anyway, needless to say I watched it and at the start was a little put out by plot points which seemed to have been a little bit obviously forced in to provide the director with devices to play with (eg the darkness, the locked doors, the silence etc) but very quickly the film made me forget any reservations I may have had. The plot is a simple ghost story that is told with confidence throughout, with a consistently subtle touch from Amenabar; to me he marked himself out as being worth watching with Abre Los Ojos and this film has only made me sure that he can produce the goods. I didn't think the conclusion was as obvious (although it isn't as shocking as it should be) as others have said and, although it hardly shocked me, it was still satisfying to me  partly because it matched the quiet tone of the film.
He plays well with the tools he has written for himself and also includes nice "fake builds" with the music and plays with our expectations to good effect. The lack of gore is a good thing and, as Japan continues to show us, sometimes unsettling juxtapositioning images can be even more effective without just sudden gore etc. I was effectively creeped out by the whole thing. Kidman is very well cast and she plays very well indeed  bring the sense of fear to the screen and encouraging the audience to feel the same as her. The child actors avoid being too cute and cloying and are part of making the film rather chilling. Support is very good from Flanagan and Sykes, but you do have to wonder why Eccleston bothered in a role that is pointless for the vast majority of the film.
Overall this is an enjoyable film that is quite chilling and is basically just a simple ghost story. There are no major scares and none of it will take you by surprise even if you don't see things coming but it does what it does well and without fuss. Some viewers will have issues with elements of it  and rightly so, but generally it is a very effective little film that you will enjoy the less you know about it.