Pass the Popcorn review

Rating: 8/10 (29 October 2013)

The Others is a psychological horror movie directed and written by Alejandro Amenábar, and it's his first English language movie. Amenábar is a director, actor and a composer. He wrote the screenplays for five of his movies, and composed the majority of the soundtracks. The Others was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, which is pretty rare for a horror movie. As a big fan of ghost movies, I consider this movie to be a masterpiece.
On a huge estate, in an always darkened house – darkened because of the two of her photosensitive children – lives Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman), the mother of a boy and a girl whose husband hasn't returned from war in the past year and a half. As a very religious person, Grace insists on her children's religious education, teaches them about God's morals and reads verses from the Bible. Because of her inability to conduct all of the house work, she employs three workers who should help her with the children and around the house. Since she has a heavy rheumatic disease, Grace keeps silence in the house, but it is one day disrupted by piano sounds, children's cries and sounds of footsteps. Her daughter Anne (Alakina Mann) tries to convince her and her brother that she frequently sees a little boy, Victor (Alexander Vince), and his family, but Grace blames the workers for everything that's happening.
The Others has a very good atmosphere because of the creepy soundtrack (present in all tense situations), the old house in which many families have lived, the constant fog and the isolation from every form of civilization. Despite the fact that there are not many jump scares and blood, the tension is still present and it's created mainly by making the house dark (the curtains are always closed) and silent. Nicole Kidman, in spite of being reluctant to accept the role, since before this she was working on Moulin Rouge!, turned out to be excellent in the horror genre. She amazingly portrayed hysteria, as well as kindness to her folks, and her facial expression freezes one's blood (like in the scene where she starts finding out the truth). The movie is dominated by the opposition between the guessing what could be going on, the religious beginning and the overall thematic – and what's really going on, and the sudden annihilation of the aforementioned.
The role of the children in the movie was very big and very successful. Their regular conflicts about their mother and father create drama and tension. The character who leads the audience, and the other characters, to the discovery of what's happening, is nurse Bertha Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), who tells Anne that she trusts her and that she also feels the presence of the boy Victor. She also tries to convince Grace of the existence of the supernatural. As a remark, I'd say the character of Charles Stewart (Christopher Eccleston) felt unnecessary – he has no impact on the rest of the characters or the overall plot. The movie's ending is exceptional and is worth every minute of the movie's duration. The movie doesn't want to leave the revelation to the very end – instead, the truth is progressively exposed throughout the movie, but still manages to lead to an unexpected finale. The Others, despite not being a movie that will haunt your dreams for weeks, manages to keep its quality and level of creepiness with every subsequent watch. A definite recommendation!
Rating: 8/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.com/