Finally, another film released in 2001 that I can recommend without reservation ("Sexy Beast" and "Legally Blonde" were being crushed under the weight of responsibility). Directed by Chilean Alejandro Amenabar and shot in Spain (Spain does a creditable job as the Channel Islands, circa 1945), The Others is essentially a haunted house story. The inhabitants of that house are Nicole Kidman, a WWII widower (though she hangs on to the slim reed of hope that her missing husband will some day return) and her two children who suffer a allergy to light. As such, they must be kept in a house curtained off from all sunlight. They are joined by an elder nanny and gardener, and a mute servant girl.
Amenabar's picture is creepy and methodical, but he has no real interest in a big "Gotcha!" or in the marvels of special effects. His haunts are sparse yet genuine, and with the riveting and luscious Kidman as our guide (1945 fashion agrees with her), he draws the audience into the horror of the house gently. The picture is also beautiful as Amenabar makes full use of his light-deprived set, yet makes the externals (the fog laden English manor) even more foreboding.
The parallels to The Sixth Sense are there, but The Others owes more to Peter Medak's The Changeling and Lewis Allen's The Uninvited. One of the best of this year. Grade: A.
