Stars: Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan, Elaine Cassidy, Eric Sykes, Renee Asherson, Keith Allen

Director: Alejandro Amenabar

Summary: Grace is trying her best to bring up her two young children whilst awaiting her husband's return from the war. Three servants arrive to help her but it soon becomes apparent that there is much more to this trio that meets the eye...

THE OTHERS begins with a close-up of a woman screaming. By the time this intense film ends, everyone watching it will be screaming and gasping. Nicole Kidman stars as Grace, a woman raising two children by herself in a creepy mansion. World War II is over, but Grace's husband never returned. Meanwhile, the two children, Anne and Nicholas, must constantly stay in the dark because they are deathly allergic to light. Then one day, three people show up to take over for Grace's disappeared staff, and trouble starts to brew. The odd trio--an aging nanny, an elderly gardener, and a young mute girl--seems to have a slightly different agenda than Grace and the children do. But when Anne starts talking to strange, unseen people, the scares start building to an incredible climax.
Alejandro Amenabar's highly stylized English-language debut is one of the finest films in the haunted-house genre. Not only did Amenabar write and direct the film but he composed the eerie music as well. Kidman is outstanding as the overprotective mother trying to save her children, while Fionnula Flanagan excels as the nanny with a deep, dark secret. Because the children must remain in darkness, Grace must lock every door behind her, to make sure that the children don't accidentally enter a brightly lit room; it is a marvelous horror-film device that Amenabar uses to perfection.

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A welcome throwback to the spooky traditions of Jack Clayton's The Innocentsand Robert Wise's The Haunting, Alejandro Amenábar's The Othersfavours atmosphere, sound, and suggestion over flashy special effects. Set in 1945 on a fog-enshrouded island off the British coast, the film begins with a scream as Grace (Nicole Kidman) awakens from some unspoken horror, perhaps arising from her religiously overprotective concern for her young children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley). The children are hypersensitive to light and have lived in a musty manor with curtains and shutters perpetually drawn. With Grace's husband (Christopher Eccleston) presumably lost at war, this ominous setting perfectly accommodates a sense of dreaded expectation, escalating when three strangers arrive in response to Grace's yet-unposted request for domestic help. Led by housekeeper Mrs Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), this mysterious trio is as closely tied to the house's history as Grace's family is--as are the past occupants seen posthumously in a long-forgotten photo album. With her justly acclaimed performance, Kidman maintains an emotional intensity that fuels the film's supernatural underpinnings. And while Amenábar's pacing is deliberately slow, it befits the tone of penetrating anxiety, leading to a twist that extends the story's reach from beyond the grave. Amenábar unveiled a similarly effective twist in his Spanish thriller Open Your Eyes(remade by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky), but where that film drew debate, The Othersis finely crafted to provoke well-earned goose bumps and chills down the spine. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Audio Commentary From The Director, Inside The Others Featurette, Visual Effects Featurette, Directors Interview, Special Feature On Xeroderma Pigmentosum
Subtitles:	English
Year:	2001
Release Date:	September 23, 2002
Runtime:	104 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	B E D 888470
Label:	Dimension Home Video
Keywords:	Others, General, Thriller, Psychological, Otros
Genre:	Thriller