This supernatural gothic horror film is otherworldly indeed. It's one very creepy movie.

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2019)

Set on the British Island of Jersey in the immediate aftermath of WWII, the film written & directed by Alejandro Amenábar follows the story of housewife/mother Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) and her two children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley), being haunted by spirits wanting them to leave. Without spoiling the movie too much, for a film rated PG-13 and not a drop of blood or graphic gore in it. It's scary! It works because how well made the motion picture was. All the camera shots portray the dark picturesque decaying creepy astrosphere with melodramatic psychology fear to a tee. For example the opening title shots with the hand drawn drawing of a house fading into an actual home through an excellent use of transition made it seem like a ghost story was coming to light. While the overall atmosphere of clichés fog and haze does go overboard at times in the film; it does set a mysterious mood to the settlings. Adding to this, the voyeuristic wide shot taken from outside looking in the house through the pane of glass are very powerful. It shows the isolation of the trapped characters to the point that it's very effecting unsettling. I also like how most of the film takes place within dark rooms and dim hallways with flames of candles in lanterns as the only source of light due to the children's photosensitivity sickness. It create a more shadowy feel to the film, creating disoriented and uneasy psychological state within the viewers on what they're seeing and not seeing. A good example of this is the puppet scene. However some of the significant use of mirrors and reflections shots throughout the film don't really go anywhere. You would think it would play both more conscious and subconscious in the character's mind, but its themes are avert for the most part. As for sound. The disembodied voices, strange noises and intense musical music can lead the viewers to believe that something frightening is about to happen, yet, most of the big scares come at the moment where it's quite quiet with not much going on the screen. The film cleverly tricks your senses. Thus making scenes like the piano room jolts hardly predictable. I glad that the movie doesn't really indulge on too many in your face jump scares. The old school approach of not showing much is ambiguous. It's the fear of the unknown that really scare people. As for pacing. The film works best as a slow burn thriller with its runtime. While this might cause some parts of the movie to seem boring with certain amount of static shots, little action & heavy exposition dumps. In the end it does works to build up the tension to the climatic 1999 film 'Six Sense' gotcha type twist ending. Because of that, the movie has a lot of repeat value as there is plenty of clever hints and Easter eggs that lead to that the revelation of the terrible secret besides the gravesites and the oddly out of place post mortem photograph album with the servants like Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan). Some examples are the way Grace first picks up the rifle. She's seen looking at the item as it was déjà vu. Another is her frequently complaining about migraines. Even her children peculiarly heavy breathing foreshadows the end. To add onto that, Grace's religious fundamentalism makes a lot of sense when you consider that she interpreted her and her children allegedly continuing to survive after the war as a miracle of God. No wonder why she got super religionist and try to 'live' up to her given name to the point that she berates Anne for questioning what she's been taught by her, and uses biblical stories like limbo to frighten and manipulate her daughter. Kidman was very convincing as the prudish, over-bearing mother who desperately tries to protect her children from the outside world. While her character can be a bit cold & unlikeable. There were some lovely heartfelt motherly love scenes between Grace's psychotic episodes for us not to turn off the movie. As for the children. The acting is a mixed bag. The girl that play Anne was pretty decent in the role, however, I felt that the kid playing Nicholas was below average in certain parts. It didn't help that the lines coming from them felt a little too posh and thick for my taste. They didn't sound like real kids from that era. More like children of pre-WW1. As for the supporting cast. It was alright for the most part, but if the film has any big fault. I really didn't find Christopher Eccleston's role as Charlie that appealing. I felt that his premise didn't really add much to the plot. Plus his character return didn't make much sense with the story that they were telling; much in the same way, a bunch of photographs of corpses posing for portraits can end up in a storing room in a house or a living person can possessed a dead person. Nevertheless, I do dig the some of the audience member's interpretation on the reasons about Grace's pariah state. It really does seem like she might had collaborated with the enemy during the war. Certain scenes points to that being the cause of her madness. No wonder why she didn't want her children to stray too far from Christ. Although, Grace has a strong connect with the lord. The film does takes direct ideological aim at Christian theology. Undermines faith and biblical doctrine calling them dangerous fabrications to the point that some people might find the movie blasphemous. Amenábar really didn't like Catholic school. Regardless of that, overall while this morbidly fascinating movie is probably not going to lift your spirits with its depressing ending & make your love life with your significant other better. It's still otherwise, a very good movie worth checking out. One far from being dead.