THE OTHERS If I had my druthers, you'd see...oh, never mind Who would've thought, before it became a massive hit anyway, that The Sixth Sense would've bumped Scream aside to become the horror movie other theatrical horror movies want to aspire to? I for one am quite pleased; the post-Scream cycle has long since exhausted itself, and while it would've been nice to have seen a return to good ol' blood-and-guts horror, we could've done a lot worse than this kind. While The Others is no The Sixth Sense, it is better than What Lies Beneath, and is likely to be more popular among more seasoned horror viewers than that film. Nicole Kidman (one of the only women in Hollywood history whose career actually IMPROVED after a high-profile divorce) stars as Grace, a seemingly rather uptight woman living in a huge, English Channel island house circa World War II with her two children. Her kids are violently allergic to sunlight, so the curtains must always be closed in any room they're in, and every one of the fifty doors in the house must be locked at all times except, of course, when it's being used. Grace hires three people who show up to help around the house, and the kids start seeing/hearing something spooky. The Others is PG-13, which says a lot about a horror movie in these, um, sensitive times. No blood that I remember, no violence (though there are some references to it), no nudity (damn, and she looks SO GOOD, grr!), nobody running around swearing like a sailor. The horror in this one comes from mystery and dread, and that's exactly where the horror in a movie like this should come from; it's pure class all the way through, and how many horror movies you can stay awake through can you say that about these days? This is probably Kidman's best performance, though to be fair I never thought she was anything special (other than quite pretty to look at) in her other roles and this one wins by default because she's quite good here, nicely showing us unquestionable authority that can, nevertheless, be shaken under the right circumstances. The kids, played by James Bentley and Alakina Mann, are just great, terrified and curious respectively, but both most certainly children and not the wisecracking little adults we usually see. Fionnula Flanagan also excels as the seeming leader of the new help, somehow managing to be comforting and sinister at the same time. Spanish writer/director Alejandro Amenabar keeps things oppressive throughout even in scenes which are, at least on the surface, meant to be homey and warm. You haven't seen this much fog since...uh...The Fog. The pace is, well, deliberate, and a lot of people are gonna find it slow, but I found myself quite involved throughout. I also liked the elements of Christian theology, which I usually find pretty tiresome in movies like this. Admittedly, the ending would have been a little underwhelming even if some ass-drip hadn't spoiled it for everybody on one of the newsgroups I sometimes pop into. But the only serious complaint I have about this movie is the score (also by Amenabar), which is far, FAR too loud and bombastic for this kind of movie, which is quiet by its nature and should be allowed by its score to stay that way. The score's actually pretty good, it's just in the wrong movie. At any rate, it's probably the best theatrical horror movie so far this year...which is, of course, saying very little these days (last year at least had Pitch Black and Final Destination), but it's also unlikely to be beaten out in the next few months, unless From Hell or Jeepers Creepers are as good as everybody's hoping, or Session 9 is even half as good as I've been hearing (all I can think of for credible competition right now). BACK TO THE O's BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE