Premise - World War II has just ended and with her husband still away, Grace (Nicole Kidman) and her two children (Anne - Alakina Mann & Nicholas - James Bentley), both of whom have a dangerous allergy to sunlight take in a trio of servants to their Jersey mansion. However the arrival brings with it a host of strange goings on that Grace struggles to explain. I was very fortunate going into watching The Others in that I had managed to avoid all spoilers pertaining to the film, in-fact I avoided all discussion of the film period. This was a wise move as going into the film fresh leaves you wide open for what is one of the finest supernatural thrillers that I have seen in a long, long time. Indeed, I would suggest staying away from all talk of the film (including this review) if you haven't seen it yet and getting yourself down to the rental store before somebody spoils one of last years finest cinema treats. Crucial to the success of the movie is the feeling of dread and tension created by director Alejandro Amenabar. The maguffin of the children's light allergy allows for Amenabar to play scenes out in low-light conditions with only a flickering torch for comfort. He creates some real edge-of-the-seat moments and some real jumps are to be had thanks to some delicious sound design. Full use of the Dolby 5.1 set-up is employed as doors open behind you and footsteps can be heard thumping all around your head. Amenabar is clearly a master craftsman and is able to combine creepy visuals and sound to rack up the tension and drag the audience through the grinder. Although the film could be classed as a horror film, Amenabar spills not a solitary drop of blood and he is clearly a student of the less-is-more school of film-making. At no point in the film do we see the 'ghosts', they are merely suggested. This 'Blair Witch' approach is incredibly effective at spooking the audience (what is more frightening than your own imagination?) and I wish more film-makers used this method instead of spending millions on creature design. Nicole Kidman had a good year in 2001 thanks to her performances in 'Moulin Rouge' and this film. For my money this is the better of the two, although her turn in 'Moulin Rouge' was also of a very high standard. It's here though as the mother Grace that we see what Kidman is truly capable of. Grace is a complicated character, very religious and on the verge of a breakdown. Thanks in no small part to the fact that her husband is MIA in WW2 and that her previous servants up and disappeared in the middle of the night. She now finds herself trying to look after 2 disabled children and deal with what appears to be ghosts in her house. The strain is evident on Kidman's face throughout the movie as she appears to be barely holding it together. On more than one occasion she is on the verge of tears, it's a very powerful performance from Kidman. As the old adage goes, not just a pretty face. The actors that play the two sunlight allergic children are surprisingly good and they need to be. Many of the films most important scenes revolve around these two and if they had cast incompetent actors then the film would have fallen apart. As it turns out both Mann and Bentley do the business and my hatred of child actors takes another dent (I may forget Jake Lloyd yet. Nah, never gonna happen). The three actors who play the servants are good, suitably spooky and it's nice to see British Comedy God Eric Sykes as the gardener. The films pacing is sprightly although near the end I thought things were starting to slow down. The story wasn't really going anywhere and I felt the film needed a little something just to give it a bit of a kick start. Well, I certainly got it. I felt for sure that I had the ending of the movie pegged. I had paid close attention throughout and had seen a few signs pointing to an ending that I had mapped out in my mind. How wrong I was. The ending blew me away, I was so impressed I felt the need to raise the films score by a point. Just a stunning piece of writing on the part of Amenabar. If I had known the details of the ending going into the film there is no doubt in my mind that I would certainly not have enjoyed it as much as I eventually did.

8/10 for The Others. Poster Quote - Who cares if that kid sees dead people.