They're Here
With the war over Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman - Eyes Wide Shut) and her two children Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley) live in a large estate house on Jersey. Their life is controlled by a series of rules as both Anne and Nicholas suffer from photosensitivity and so must avoid daylight, but Grace also suffers from migraines and so does not like noise. Then 3 new members of staff arrive; nanny and house keeper Mrs. Bertha Mills (Fionnula Flanagan - A Secret Affair), an elderly gardener named Mr. Edmund Tuttle (Eric Sykes), and a mute girl named Lydia (Elaine Cassidy). But their arrival brings with them some strange occurrences which pushes Grace to the limit.
So all my friends who had seen "The Others" told me I had to see it because I enjoyed ...., well I am not going to tell you immediately what .... is because it would spoil this movie. So without spoiling things I will say that "The Others" is a haunted house movie but not one just about a family being scared in an old creaking mansion there is something more to it than that. But what I will say is what follows in this review amounts to a spoiler alert and so if you haven't watched "The Others" give it a go and bare with it as it is slow going, building up this mysterious mansion with its rules and strange characters till eventually we have the big reveal.
Okay so my friends said I would enjoy "The Others" because I liked "The Sixth Sense" and by doing so sort of spoiled it for me because it made me far too aware of what I should be looking for, the clues to what the truth is. In truth if "The Sixth Sense" hadn't been mentioned I may have struggled to stay with the movie because it is slow going although enjoyable in the way it builds things up till we get the twists and I do mean twists which make this haunted house movie much more than just your run of the mill haunted house movie.
Now Nicole Kidman is the star of the movie but whilst she delivers a strong performance as the uptight Grace the performances of young Alakina Mann and James Bentley are just as captivating especially young Bentley who delivers a terrific performance as a scared young boy. Plus you have the reliable performances of Fionnula Flanagan and Eric Sykes who bring colour to their characters.
What this all boils down to is that "The Others" is a very good haunted house movie which works best when watched knowing as little about it as possible other than it is slow to build up but delivers an entertaining twist or two come the end.
