Review of The Others (2001) by Jayakrishnan R — 27 Sep 2014

The overuse of fog in The Others may be a deep metaphor or an actual representation of the weather in Britain.

Bad jokes aside, I believe, by seeing the tomatometer above, that this movie has lost its gloss as years passed, as many spooky movies. This 2001 thriller however, still gets its amount of praise, as it benefits from two strong assets. Number one, Nicole Kidman is fabulous in this movie. She plays the tormented and suffering Grace, a woman who is so unhappy and longing for her probably deceased husband, and a mother who is too hard on her children. Her portayal is not ground-breaking, nor is the film, but she delivers intensity when it is needed and she is the one in charge of leading us through the plot.

Number two, this film has a fabulous ending, and that's why people still like it today. The huge twist at the third act may not surprise you as much as it surprised audiences before however, but still, I didn't guess it, and its execution is brilliant.

The rest of the film is a mixed bag. The development is painfully slow, and while Amenabar is certainly talented at creating an eerie atmosphere, most of the tension come in spurts, and then we have overlong doses of dramatic sluggishness. The Others is too dense to do spooky effectively.

I love a solid horror movie, as they are really hard to find. The genre can provide great stories, while always providing splurges of entertainment and suspense. The Others is not a solid horror movie, as it is not a horror film, or a thriller or a drama. The problem with The Others is that it doesn't know what it is.