334. The Others (2001)

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan

Director: Alejandro Amenábar

Running Time: 104 mins

The Others is a Spanish/American film about a woman who, after a series of strange happenings in her house, becomes convinced that her home is haunted, as shown by the worries of her two young children.

Well, this was a horror movie cliché beyond many horror movie clichés: the supposedly ‘chilling’ English accents, the setting in a spooky mansion in the middle of Herefordshire or somewhere, and the children who think they see people, so this was not really very original or scary to watch.

Luckily, it was not a gory horror film, because those are often just stupid. The intent to make a psychological thriller of a film was obvious, and there were perhaps one or two tense scenes throughout the movie, but that’s not enough to make it a convincingly scary thing to watch, especially if basically nothing happens for an hour and a half while the scene is STILL being set.

Another criticism I would have of this film would be the characters. I was extremely irritated by each an every person in the story, and because of the way their personalities were developed, I just wanted them all to die, rather than being scared for their lives.

I would say that the twist at the end of the film was quite clever, as you could see that there was something being built up to, but in reality, it was quite foreseeable from the start, which was a little disappointing, like the whole film, so that’s why it gets a 5.8 from me.