People live in a haunted house. Who are the ghosts will turn out as a surprise at the end.

Rating: 5/10 (21 May 2006)

This is an overrated movie that actually is just alright. It is well crafted, but not very original. The main strength of the simple plot is supposed to be the twist at the end. The average enthusiastic audience won't notice a few inconsistencies, amazed as they are by the "subtlety" of the movie and the "cleverness" of the final revelation, but I am annoyed by plots that have not been thought through thoroughly and disappointed there is so little discussion about these shortcomings (though it would be difficult to do so without spoilers).
The actors are good (notably the little girl and the two adult servants; Nicole Kidman is sort of woody, OTOH I must admit I never liked her), the photography is fine, the scenery is expensive, there is some suspense here and there, but the pace is slow, and I cannot understand how one can call a masterpiece a movie that just uses classic devices of horror movies. I appreciate too there is no blood nor severed limbs and everything is left to imagination, but the fact that, while there are so many bad splatter movies around, this one goes back to the classics is not enough to make it outstanding as say a Hitchcock.