The Others

As long as I'm looking at ghost stories, I thought I'd revisit one of my favorites, The Others, releasd in 2001, directed by Alejandro Amenabar. Now, to discuss this film I need to talk about it in its entirety, which involves a huge spoiler. So if you don't want to know the ending, stop reading here.

The film is set on the isle of Jersey just after the end of World War II. Nicole Kidman lives alone with her two children, whom she must keep in dim light because they are allergic to bright light. One day three servants come along. The spokeswomen, played by Fionnula Flanagan, says that they used to work there years earlier. Since Kidman's previous servants left without a goodbye, she hires them.

Soon it becomes apparent that something is amiss. The daughter insists she sees a boy, Victor, who says they must leave the house. Kidman is reluctant to believe her, but soon hears noises and thinks there are intruders in the house. When her husband returns from the war, he seems very disoriented.

The servants know what is going on. They keep hidden some gravestones. When I first watched this film I was completely taken aback at the twist--the characters we have been seeing are all ghosts, including Kidman and her children and all the servants. The Intruders are living people who bought the house and have hired a medium to try to get them to leave. Turns out Kidman killed her children and shot herself. The servants died many years earlier from tuberculosis, and Kidman's husband had died in the war.

I've seen this film three times now, and of course it's a different experience watching it knowing the twist, but still highly enjoyable. One looks for hints--of course the servants left, and the priest doesn't come around, and there's no mail delivery, because no one is alive there. But Amenabar creates such a spooky atmosphere that it works no matter how many times it's seen.

Kidman is also very good, a woman on the end of her string. I guess since The Sixth Sense we've had a few movies about ghosts who don't know their dead, which is a good plot device because if you believe in that sort of thing I suppose that's why they may hang around--they don't know their dead.

Many ghost stories are about fake ghosts--the Scooby-Doo syndrome, so I like films that actually have real ghosts. This is one of the best, if not the best. It's frightening, but also makes you think, especially when you learn the secret and play it all back in your head.