A ghost story guaranteed to scare the pants off you

Rating: 9/10 (8 March 2008)

A great ghost story; genuinely scary, particularly if you are seeing it for the first time. It's a haunted house movie and the less you know about it the better. It's also something of a chamber piece. It has a small, compact cast and only once does it leave the house or its grounds, (and then only for a chilly walk in the foggy woods). Nicole Kidman is the mother protective of her children to the point where we wonder about her sanity and she's magnificent. It's the best thing she's done so far, (leaving her Oscar-winning turn in "The Hours" in the shade). Fionnula Flanagan is the matronly Irish servant who arrives at her door looking for work with a mute Elaine Cassidy and gardener Eric Sykes in tow.
The young Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar both wrote and directed the film with great skill as well as composing the haunting score. He also gets great performances from the children. Indeed, this is the kind of movie that will appeal to children while scaring the pants off them. They may identify with the children in the film although that probably won't be to their advantage. Comparisons with "The Innocents" will, of course, be drawn and rightly so; this is just as good.