MC
Marco Castellini
•England, post-war: Grace and her two children live in a large, isolated house almost always shrouded in fog. The children suffer from a strange illness that forces them to live sheltered from the light. One morning, three servants arrive at the door: the young woman entrusts them with the running of the house after explaining her strict rules. Life seems peaceful, but strange noises and voices from other rooms begin to terrorize the woman and her two children: it's as if the house is inhabited by other presences; but who are these "intruders" and what do they want...? The young and promising Spanish director Amenábar, with his third film (the two previous ones being the thriller "Tesis" and the fantasy "Open Your Eyes"), ventures into horror with this ghost story starring an excellent Nicole Kidman and produced by her ex-husband, Tom Cruise. The director's choice seems clear: the true fear is that which lurks in the imagination; the tension, the suspense are rendered through noises, creaks, doors that suddenly close and open, a sort of "clues of horror" that foreshadow something, but something undefined and therefore even more terrifying. The mystery is only revealed in the final scene, leaving (as far as possible) the audience stunned. Let's say Amenábar has partly achieved the result he set out to achieve, only "in part" because the more savvy viewer can guess the ending already halfway through the film, and this is due to the debt that "The Others" inevitably has to pay to previous ghost movies like "Carnival of Souls", "Suspense" or the recent "The Sixth Sense". However, the excellent photography, dominated by the yellow of the house lights that faintly illuminate the sinister shadow areas of the rooms of the eerie mansion, a particularly effective soundtrack (composed by the director himself) and the excellent performances of the actors (as already mentioned, Kidman above all) are already more than enough to enjoy the film. Curiosity: for little James Bentley, it was not difficult to get into the role, the child in fact really suffered, for a few years, from a rare disease that made him photosensitive, not allowing him to expose himself to the sun without first applying a special protective cream for the skin.
