World class film tinkered with to become more Hollywood drivel...

Rating: Null/10 (2 November 2003)

I was highly impressed with THE OTHERS right from the start. Its mood. Its Cinematography. And the way each scene was constructed. The acting here is impeccable, the storyline at first highly original and unpredictable.
The first sign of this being a clunker is when we are telegraphed with a sledgehammer that THERE IS SOMETHING 'WRONG' OR EVIL ABOUT THE HIRED HELP....mimicking to many episodes of the Twilight Zone... The film then loses it center of gravity, as it degenerates, literally into BEETLEJUICE meets THE SIXTH SENSE.
What I suspect(or hope) is that the director had a little gem of a film here, but that wasnt good enuff for the WEINSTEIN brothers, who saw a way to cash in on the "twist-ending" horror phase, so in order to get the film made-it had to be 'tinkered' with-something they are notorious at doing to small, art or foreign films in order to "Hollywood-ize" them for American consumption...