The Others (2001)

Finally! An old school styled haunted house flick that was a blessed and merciful departure from recent CGI laden crap like the "The Haunting" and "13 Ghosts" remakes. Living in a big gothic mansion, ultra-foxy Nicole Kidman portrays a widowed mother of two young children who suffer from a very rare disease of being allergic to sunlight. To protect the children, she carries around a big set of keys with her, constantly locking each door behind her so the children will not forget and walk into a sun filled room. The drapes in the home are also constantly pulled shut, resulting in the whole film being about seventy-five percent lit with candlelight, providing a constant motion of shadows and creating a nice creepy atmosphere throughout. As if this is not weird enough, kids living like vampires and the like, things soon start to go bump in the night when three new servants arrive at the house after the previous ones just disappeared.

"The Others" is an excellent return to smart horror, one that has nicely developed characters and keeps you thinking throughout the picture. This is a very character driven flick, what with only six actors to hold your attention for over the two hour running time of the film...and it actually works. Nicole Kidman is great as the caring, if somewhat overly religious and Catholic guilt laden mother of the two young children, and it's interesting to see how she acts when all the spooky shit starts to hit the fan. The kid actors are also pretty good, as I typically hate child actors, but those two kids did a damn fine job, as did the mysterious servants. The scares are very subliminal and tastefully done, you won't find any splinters through the eyeballs here my friends. The focus is on atmosphere, atmosphere, and yes, more atmosphere as the gothic mansion is just beautifully filmed and perfect for the films proceedings. The scares are creepy, the story well written, and a twist ending that will knock your socks off. "The Others" is one of my favorite horror flicks of recent times. Recommended.