The Others: A Return to Classical Supernatural Horror

Rating: 10/10 (6 August 2011)

Nowadays in horror, it isn't enough to simply hint at a ghost. The audience is going to want to see the specter in the flesh. But that takes away the true fright of supernatural terror. The feeling of an otherworldly presence is much scarier than seeing it. After such classics as 1961's "The Innocents" and 1963's "The Haunting," a film like Alejandro Amenabar's "The Others" is a warm love letter to horror.
The film is set in 1940's New England. While her husband is away at war, Nicole Kidman's character, Grace, watches over her dark, foreboding mansion, as well as her children, Anne and Nicholas, who have a disturbing allergy to sunlight. Once Grace calls upon new housekeepers to tend to the mansion and the kids, things begin to go wrong. There is something the new guests aren't telling her, Anne is "lying" about seeing a little boy named Victor, and strange noises occur. But Victor isn't the only problem. There are others, uninvited guests that can't be seen. Is the house haunted or is Grace's sanity string beginning to loosen?
"The Others" is, without a doubt, an extremely frightening horror film in a repetitious world of serial killers and nude blonds. It got attention when it was released, but today, I feel like its popularity has unfairly faded.
The film has an ominous feel right from the start. There is nothing happy about this setting. You can already tell that Grace is unhappy, and since her husband is gone and her children's lives are at stake, she is always on edge. The mansion is completely darkened, and leaving a single door open can bring in sunlight and trigger an effect on the kids. But in such a case when a door is left open and nobody has touched it, we, as an audience member, develop paranoia and fear of the characters' surroundings.
Back in the day, not seeing a ghost was, and still is, more terrifying. Masters like Jack Clayton and Robert Wise knew that, and so does Alejandro Amenabar. We don't see a single apparition. Amenabar favors implication over shock, something Hitchcock would be proud of. It is an old formula brought back to fantastic life.
Although atmosphere is a highlight of "The Others," the casting of Nicole Kidman is equally powerful. She is beautiful as well as talented. Her performance sponsors a realistic fear, which is a mother's loss of a child's love or even the loss of a child. Bring ghosts into the mix, and you have a perfect recipe for psychological horror, thanks to her performance.
The ending is definitely a more common cliché currently than it was in 2001, but it still brings chills. And so does the rest of the movie. Paying homage to the classical horror films of the 1940's, "The Others" knows what truly scares you, and I hope one day, that it won't be a film just for older audiences, but for newcomers who have been raised on slasher movies, also.