The Others

Rating:
Summary: Will you love it, or hate it?
Review: Judging from the reviews I've read on here, folks either love this film or hate it. A few have even given it 1 or 2 stars because they didn't like the 'twist' at the end, and then go on to add descriptors like 'well made', 'startling', and the like. Go figure. Well, I come down on the 'loved it' end of the scale. A lot of folks are comparing it to 'The Sixth Sense'. I think much better comparisons are (for different reasons) the original (1963) 'The Haunting' (in my opinion, the best haunted house movie ever made) and 'Jacob's Ladder' (which is an absolutely classic updating of a classic Ambrose Bierce short story). But those comparisons are made repeatedly by the other reviewers on here. I think it comes down to: do you like psychological thrillers or 'in your face' slasher films? Both can be effective, but rely on completely different film making and story-telling conventions. This film is very much the former, hence the 'slow' pace (which I didn't find slow) and the emphasis on character development. Personally, the stuff that scares me the most are the unexplained bumps in the night, that strange feeling that something you can't see is in the room and looking at you, and the sense that the people around you aren't quite 'right'. This film gets that stuff perfect. Oh yes, the visuals and score are excellent and the acting is wonderful. Ms. Kidman, especially, gives a wonderful portrayal of a devoted and protective mother slowly coming to grips with the realization that she really doesn't know what's going on.

Rating:
Summary: The Others is not like the Other horror films!!!
Review: The Others is a creepy gothic style psycological thriller. It made me hungry for more movies like this. Its a little 6th sense-ish, but not to much I like it more then the sixth sense and prolly could watch this several times. Nicole Kidman is brilliant as "Grace" the mother who teaches her children at home because of their "Condition" and is very religious. Always telling them if they are bad they'll go to Limbo. To keep them in line. This movie doesn't rely on the cheap trick of special effects, but is rather a psycological thing never knowing just what's going to happen next. There are a few good scares in here as well. Me and my friend when we saw it at one point in the movie(wont say where)we screamed our heads off!It was quite funny. But this has a killer twist with the ending. DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU THE ENDING IT'LL RUIN THE MOVIE for the most part anyways. So to wrap it up if you are looking for a good movie this summer, instead of all those blockbuster movies that just plained suck or maybe looking for a few good scares check out "The Others" and you will most likely NOT be let down! So *Enjoy*! God Bless ~Amy

Rating:
Summary: A Scary Hollywood Movie That Plays Like A Foreign Film
Review: Simply put, this is a good old-fashioned ghost story. THE OTHERS is director Alejandro Amenabar's first english film. This film teaches a lesson on life, death, and religion. There are moments of genuine surprise for the characters who are willing to enter the Victorian house where "the world of the dead gets mixed up with the world of the living." Nicole Kidman plays the controlling mother of a young boy and girl who must be sheltered at all times due to a rare skin condition. Kidman portrays the nervous wreck role quite well, seeming sometimes heroic, and yet, sometimes openly hostile toward her troubled kids. She plays the part of a single mother with soul and conviction. Having to live with drawn curtains, the use of soft candlelight and shadowed corners presents a less sinister background in a seemingly creepy film. THE OTHERS is all about atmosphere and setting. The storyline slowly moves through a fog of uncertainty, passing though some thought-provoking, religious overtones. This spooky romp into the hauted house genre is loaded with thrills and chills, not to mention wonderful acting by Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, and Fionnula Flanagan. This film will make you scream.

Rating:
Summary: Moody and Brooding
Review: Towards the end of World War II, Grace (Nicole Kidman) lives in a mansion near the English Coast with her two children Anne and Nicholas (Alakina Mann, James Bentley) where they are waiting for her husband Charles (Christopher Eccleston) to come back home from the war. Grace is unbearably religious and does not believe in nonsense like ghosts which her independently minded daughter Anne likes to talk about, claiming to have seen and spoken with them. Anne and her brother Nicholas have an allergy to light; so the curtains must be drawn and doors must be closed and locked before the next one is opened, to keep the light out because the light will hurt the children; beautiful, pale sad children. There are no great special effects in this movie, it is very slow and i do not recommend it for those who need action. Most of the time i need action and i do wish this movie had more movement to it, but i still enjoyed it. It is a moody and brooding movie. It is wonderfully heavy on atmosphere. And It has a story. All the servants have disappeared into thin air and replacing those servants are Fionnula Flanagan as Mrs. Mills, Elaine Cassidy as Lydia, and Eric Sykes as Mr. Tuttle. They play the housekeeper, the nanny and the gardener. But one quickly learns they are not what they seem. Why do they return to this house? What are their motives? Soon after the arrival of the servants Grace begins to hear noises and to sense something diabolical is living in her home. Is Grace imagining these things? Is Anne creating these effects in order to gain attention? Are the servants trying to undo her in order to take control of her home and to hurt her children? Grace despite her rigidness and strictness has a vulnerability to her. Maybe too much vulnerability since according to her daughter she has once suffered madness. Nicole Kidman plays her perfectly. She can express feelings and thoughts with a mere look. All are perfect in their parts; and the dialogue is excellent in it's poetic feel. This movie is not a special effects movie, it is a movie which takes place in your imagination. It's a movie of feeling.

Rating:
Summary: Who are the Others?
Review: "The Others" is an excellent ghost story set in an atmosphere of post WWII. The main characters are: a large country house, mother with two light-allergic children, mysterious housekeeper, mute girl, strange and allusive father, and old gardener. The suspense does build and does not fail to surprise. I had trouble concentrating on my popcorn. Hey, I am used to modern technology with all of the special effects, noise, blood, computerized actions, and semi-animated sequences. None of that for us. This was just a good old-fashioned scary story, right? Basically its a study in contrasts. Dark house vs non-electric lamps, gray tombstones covered with colorful autumn leaves, whispering vs screaming. At first I thought the management had forgotten to turn up the sound until I realized it was supposed to be that way. But we did NOTICE the screaming. Once I was so frightened I almost beat the characters to it. Tom Cruise produced it; but this film goes beyond being a vehicle for his ex-wife, Nicole Kidmon. It reminded me somewhat of "The Ghost and Mrs. Muier, Portrait of Jenny, and the Haunting(Julie Harris one) and measures up to modern gems like "The Sixth Sense" and "Ghost" (without the comic relief). Kidman is stretched beyond her capacity in this finely directed film, but I think the director did the very best with what he had. The other performances shine, especially the stoic housekeeper, and the little boy. The girl's not bad either. I especially noticed a great moment when the housekeeper's mute daughter struggles to speak. Remember Dorothy McGuire in "The Spiral Staircase"? Questions abound working there way to resolution. What is the mother really afraid of? What secrets do the staff keep hidden? Why doesn't everyone see the boy, Victor? What is that noise upstairs? Why does the father want to return to the front when the war(WWII) is over? Whose names are on those graves? What do we really believe about life hereafter? And really, who are the OTHERS? The OTHERS did not disappoint me. I found it well worth the price. It's a must-see in its cinematic excellence. You too will be frightened and amazed at the surprising ending which even I, though a buff of the genre for 45 years who figured out the ending to "The Sixth Sense" early on didn't get until the very last. Yes, no special effects, but I will be long especially effected.

Rating:
Summary: Wake me when it's over, please!
Review: Scary? No. Suspenceful? No. Thrilling? No. Worth watching? No. Well, what was it then? It was better than counting sheep! Good nite!

Rating:
Summary: Class is back in thriller movies!
Review: The Others is a sublimely creepy film, with genuine scares and a great plot that keeps you guessing until the very end. Nicole Kidman gives one of the best performances of her career, and the children playing her kids are equally powerful. This is old-school film making, Hitchcock style. It's classy, methodical, and eerie, with a tension that never lets up. This is one of the few films that I have seen in recent history that stirred up so much talk in the theatre's lobby after the film was over. Strangers were talking to each other about how good The Others was. You don't see that every day, now do you?

Rating:
Summary: *****Warning Spoilers*******
Review: This movie was good, but not great. However I will say that I liked it much better than the Sixth Sense. Not to get all film school geeky, but the Sixth Sense was all plot and no story. The difference between Plot and Story is: Plot is everything you see on the screen, while story is everything (including back story, the plot, and everything else). The Others at least had a back story and a point to the whole thing. The only thing the Sixth Sense had going for it was the fact that it had a twist ending. Even if the Others did not have a twist ending the story was enough to me interested through out.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: This movie was awesome!! It was extremely well made, VERY scary, and the end is unbelievably unexpected! A definite must-see, though be warned, there are parts where you'll really jump out of your seat and scream!! But it was a success in being a horror-thriller. The best scary movie I've ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: The Others
Review: I really enjoyed the feature. The plot was suspenseful but different from other scary movies. I was disappointed in the ending though. Although creative, I felt I was watching "The Sixth Sense" in a different perspective and a different time period. Even with this flaw the film caught my attention and led me to believe the characters were being haunted themsleves and the servents, were alive but still knew what was going on inside that house.