A truly worthy tale of suspense and intrigue

Rating: 10/10 (9 October 2001)

I walked into The Others not expecting much. Most 'ghost stories' today are just bloody messes with no real plot, nothing to keep you interested. I constantly find myself looking around the theater to see if anyone else is as bored or disgusted as I am. Not The Others. First let me say, I am a huge fan of literary ghost stories, well done, frightening tales that don't use blood or gore or any other media than written word and your own imagination to scare you. I was pleasantly surprised. The acting was amazing, the plot very well thought out, and remained true to what I consider real Suspense. This film proves you don't have to be a bloody gore-fest or a plot-less, mindless killer-kills-all-girl's-friends-in-really-bloody-ways-for-no-real-reason. No suspense, no intrigue, no thought needed the only thing that scares people in those films is the gore, not the story. The Others really takes you into it, I forgot completely I was in a cinema, and was completely engrossed. Having read, as I said, a great many 'suspense/horror' novels I kept mentally trying to see where the story would go, but while I did guess a few things, I could not guess it all and was thrilled beyond words by the cleverness of the tale by the end. I was truly held in thrall every moment waiting to see what would happen next and was blissful with the style it was carried out in when I left the theater. I cant say enough good about this movie. Nicole Kidman (who I thought was amazing in Malice and Moulin Rouge, and Far and Away) really astounded me. Her performance was stupendous. I dislike Tom Cruise as an actor and a person, and I don't want to give him any credit for this fantastic tale, especially since he was just one of 9 producers and they really don't do much but pony up some cash, so give the credit where it is due, the actors (especially Ms Kidman), and the writer and director, Alejandro Amenábar. A truly worthy tale of suspense and intrigue that Rod Serling, Shirley Jackson, and Alfred Hitchcock would be proud of.