Olivia Barone
Arts & Entertainment Editor
“The Others,” starring Nicole Kidman, is a forgotten horror classic with a plot twist that rivals “The Sixth Sense.” Released in 2001, the film succeeded in the box office before falling to the wayside, overshadowed by trending horror films oversaturated with gore.
The film, set in 1945, features mother Grace Stewart (Kidman) and her two children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley). The family moves into a country house in New Jersey in hopes of regaining some normalcy during World War II. Grace is a devout Catholic and obsessed mother who has grown overprotective due to her children’s light sensitivity. Upon moving in, all of the windows in the house are draped with dark shades in order to keep Anne and Nicholas safe.
Grace is relieved when housekeeper Bertha Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), gardener Edmund Tuttle (Eric Sykes) and a young mute named Lydia (Elaine Cassidy) arrive seeking renewal of their former employment in the Mills house. Their assistance allows Grace to focus on her children and her faith. The audience is then given an initial glance into Grace’s paranoia as she is seen locking every door in the home behind her in the effort to keep her children inside and away from the sun.
After Grace employs Mrs. Mills and her companions, strange happenings begin to rattle her home and family. The piano begins to play on its own and Anne begins seeing and hearing figures in the dark. Anne reports seeing a man, a woman, an elderly woman with no eyes and a young boy named Victor, who she regularly speaks to. Grace is beginning to believe the house is haunted, but uses her Catholic faith to refute her suspicions. It is not until her children are in danger due to unknown forces that she confronts the others living within her walls.
“The Others” is a tactful horror film forgotten in time. The plot twist is veiled until the end and ultimately alters the viewer’s perspective of the film in its entirety. Only watching it again with the ending in mind will expose the film’s true intentions and answer any viewer’s inevitable questions after their initial watch. For future viewers’ sake, I have omitted answers to the film to make your first watch as thrilling as mine was.
The film’s special effects are minimal, relying solely on atmosphere and the skill of the cast to send chills up and down the spines of the audience. It captures the essence of the iconic film, “The Sixth Sense,” whose plot twist is renowned as one of the greatest in horror cinema. “The Others” rivals “The Sixth Sense” for its tragic plot twist is executed seamlessly and is just as shocking as finding out that Cole Sear can see the dead in “The Sixth Sense.”
Catch one last horror film before the holiday season jumpscares us at the end of November with “The Others,” streaming on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.