by Kevin Lang

     It was a warm muggy Friday night. I was tired, and I had no desire to go out to the clubs again. No, it was time to relax a bit, and begin a journey of theatrical sorts. I was determined to start catching up on the recent movies I had missed. What better way to begin than by seeing one of the weekend’s new releases, "The Others"?

     I had been interested in seeing "The Others" since I first saw the trailer a month or so ago. It is an eerie trailer, and what especially caught my attention is its lack of outrageous special effects. This was a promising sign, and I began to wonder if Hollywood had finally caught on to the idea that true fear is more effectively conveyed when it is rooted closer to reality. Special effects used in excess, although often visually appealing, usually act to detach the moviegoer from any sort of fear that they may have been feeling. This mistake was all too evident with the "The Haunting" remake as well as with "House on Haunted Hill," another remake. Knowing Hollywood, I wasn’t about to put too much faith in a trailer. However, from the trailer alone I could see that "The Others" was going to be different from most of the recent Hollywood horror fare.

     I sat down to watch "The Others," at almost two in the morning. Although it was late, my excitement and anticipation for the film were enough alone to keep me awake. My friend, who is a local theater manager, ran the film for the two of us and a friend of ours. We were glued to the screen, but our friend fell asleep at the beginning. Let me state that this was not because the movie is boring, it was because it was so late and he had started work rather early that day. Okay, enough excuses for his exhaustion. Let me continue by saying that "The Others" may just be the best movie I have seen all summer. This sounds like a strong statement, but there really hasn’t been anything else worth writing about, except for maybe "Shrek" from what I hear (I haven’t seen it yet. Like I said, I have some catching up to do.)

     The film begins with Nicole Kidman waking from a frightful nightmare, just before she hears a knock at her door. It is then that three servants arrive to help her care for the house. The servants are played excellently, although their roles are not nearly as demanding as those of Nicole Kidman and her children, Anne and Nicholas, played by Alakina Mann and James Bentley. Nicole Kidman gives a remarkable performance, maybe her best yet, as Grace, a mother of two children who are afflicted with a disease that requires them to be kept secluded from bright light. They live in a house where, during the day, the curtains are kept drawing and candles are used to dimly light the darkness. No one can enter a new room without shutting the door to the previous room from which they have entered. These rules add to the morbidity of an already eerie atmosphere. With this, we do not have to wait for the night to bring the element of fear that is associated with darkness.

     The film takes its time in developing its plot. As it does this, it offers us information that stirs our interest. We increasingly begin to wonder what lies beneath, no pun intended, all of the strange and awkward things that begin to take place. Young Anne sees ghosts. A piano seems to be playing by itself. A thunderous rumbling comes from the floorboards upstairs, but wait, the servants are outside, there is no one upstairs. You get the idea. Grace refuses to believe in things such as ghosts, but all the evidence proves her wrong. A sort of hysteria sets in, one that we the audience feel as well, and from that point on we are carried along on the edge of our seat.

     All along a secret exists that the children know, but are prohibited by Grace from speaking about. Gradually we begin to feel the weight that this secret bares. It must be something awful, but what could be that awful? So awful that days after we leave the theater, in thinking about the film, we can still feel that freaky disturbing horror? You’ll have to wait until you see the film to find out, but I can say that there is a twist. It is almost inevitable since it is hard to make sense of the film until then. However, it works very well and is almost without holes. Nicole Kidman is a true pleasure to watch. She is brilliant in this role, conveying the necessary emotion, sternness, and disbelief that are required of her. She never goes overboard. She has never been more balanced and poised in a role before, and at times we begin to see her only as Grace, finding ourselves asking the question, Tom who?