The Others [2001]

Starting back in 1997, the haunty wave, as I like to call him, produced a number of movies featuring similar elements. They were all supernatural thrillers with a lot mystery and the strangest thing was their quality. They were excellent, especially when compared to today’s standards. You know the movies I’m talking about: Fallen, The Sixth Sense, The Haunting, Dragonfly, The Mothman Prophecies, Stir of Echoes, The Devil’s Backbone, Frequency and others. Directed by Alejandro Amenabar, famous for his masterpiece Abre Los Ojos (Vanilla Sky – Hollywood reboot), The Others is a phenomenal experience. In case you haven’t seen it, it’s best that you know as little details about the story as possible.

Nicole is a mother of two photosensitive kids and she is doing her best to protect them from the cruel circumstances that have fallen on her family (light, death of husband, spooky house, other people).

With a very intense and mysterious atmosphere, The Others decided to stay away from relatively cheap scares and counted on that thick atmosphere to generate tension. And there was a lot of tension. Great camera work emphasized this, with innovative angles that will pull you into this old ass mansion. Another thing that was done top notch was lighting. With the story revolving around photo-sensitivity, this is something that had to be done right. All that atmosphere and storytelling, did influence the pacing, so you can expect that the first half of the movie is a bit slower, with things picking up pace in the second half and ending with a phenomenal finale. The acting was top notch, as it should be expected when we’re talking about two very experienced actresses (Nicole and Fionnula). Combining the European horror vibe and classical Hollywood production, created a movie with the best of both worlds.

Director: Alejandro Amenábar

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Elaine Cassidy, Alakina Mann

Fun Facts: The disease the children have is an actual disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum. It is very rare with roughly a thousand people in the world that have it.

Rating:

IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230600/