The Others (2001) Review: Fear Kept Behind Drawn Curtains

Is The Others worth watching?

Yes. The Others is a near-flawless gothic ghost story, built on shadows, silence and a commanding Nicole Kidman performance, and it remains one of the most satisfying horror films of its era. Alejandro Amenábar proves that fear does not need gore or loud shocks, only a dark house and a story that keeps tightening. The only real reservation is the deliberate pace, which asks viewers to settle into the film’s hushed rhythm. It is also best seen knowing as little as possible.

What is The Others about?

The Others is set in 1945 on Jersey, in the Channel Islands, just after the Second World War. Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) lives with her two young children in a vast, isolated country house, waiting for news of her husband, who went away to fight and has not come home.

The children suffer from a rare condition that makes daylight dangerous to them, so Grace runs the house by strict rules: curtains always drawn, lamps low, and no door opened before the previous one is locked. When three new servants arrive, led by the calm, knowing housekeeper Mrs Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), odd things begin to happen. The children speak of strangers in the house, sounds come from empty rooms, and Grace, a devout Catholic who prides herself on control, feels that control slipping. Christopher Eccleston plays her absent husband, Charles.

Amenábar wrote, directed and scored this Spanish production, which was made in English and runs 104 minutes. It won several Goya Awards, among them best director.

Darkness as the film’s main character

Amenábar makes the house itself the source of dread. Because light is forbidden, most scenes are lit by candles and lamps, and Javier Aguirresarobe’s cinematography turns every corridor and staircase into a pool of shadow with its edges swallowed in black. The locked-door rule becomes a brilliant suspense device: each room is a separate little world, and every opening door is a small event.

The sound is equally precise. Footsteps overhead, a piano playing in an empty room, whispers in the children’s quarters: the film understands that what is heard but not seen is far more frightening. Amenábar’s own restrained score reinforces the sense of a world holding its breath.

Nicole Kidman holds the house together

Kidman gives one of her finest performances as Grace. Clipped, brittle and fiercely protective, Grace could easily have been a stock hysterical heroine; instead, Kidman shows a woman whose rigid faith and routines are all that keep her from falling apart. Her mix of authority and fragility makes her both sympathetic and slightly frightening.

Fionnula Flanagan is superb as Mrs Mills, her soft-spoken calm always suggesting she knows more than she says, and the two children give natural, unforced performances that make their fear feel real. The script uses their bickering and questions about faith to raise the unsettling thought that the adults may not have all the answers.

Where patience is required

The Others is a slow film, and deliberately so. The middle section repeats its pattern of noises, investigations and arguments, and viewers expecting frequent scares may grow restless. Eccleston’s role is small, and the film’s classical approach means it offers little in the way of visceral horror. For some, its restraint will read as coolness. For most, that restraint is exactly the point.

Who should watch The Others?

It is ideal for fans of gothic horror, period ghost stories and psychological suspense, and for viewers who dislike gore. It is rated PG-13 in the US and works for most teenagers, although several moments are genuinely frightening and the themes of grief, faith and children in danger are heavy. At 104 minutes, it is compact. Avoid reading plot details beforehand.

For more in the same spirit:

• The Orphanage, a Spanish ghost story about a mother, a house and a missing child, with a similar emotional punch.
• Psycho, Hitchcock’s classic study of a house full of secrets and a story that keeps its cards close.
• The Skin I Live In, a very different Spanish thriller that also hides its secrets inside a sealed mansion.

The verdict

The Others is a model of elegant, old-fashioned horror, with a superb Nicole Kidman performance and a director in complete control of light, sound and suspense. Its slow pace will not suit everyone, but few ghost stories are so beautifully constructed or so rewarding to experience for the first time.

Rating: 4.5/5