A welcome throwback to the spooky traditions of Jack Clayton's The Innocents and Robert Wise's The Haunting, Alejandro Amenábar's The Others favors 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 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 posed 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 Others is finely crafted to provoke well-earned goose bumps and chills down the spine. --Jeff Shannon

Screen sensation Nicole Kidman (MOULIN ROUGE, EYES WIDE SHUT) delivers an utterly unforgettable performance in this scary and stylish suspense thriller. While awaiting her husband's return from war, Grace (Kidman) and her two young children live an unusually isolated existence behind the locked doors and drawn curtains of a secluded island mansion. Then, after three mysterious servants arrive and it becomes chillingly clear that there is far more to his house than can be seen, Grace finds herself in a harrying fight to save her children and keep her sanity. Acclaimed by critics everywhere, the unpredictable twists and turns of this compelling hit will keep you guessing as it keeps you riveted to the edge of your seat!

The movie was good. Very haunting and with surprises along the way. I highly recommend this DVD. Thanks. Michael

This movie is awesome! What an unbelievable twist in the end. For once, you get to see what it feels like to be on the OTHER side.

I thought that this was a good movie. They had all these strange rules like closing one door before opening another then locking them and having all the curtains closed, etc. Then in bonus footage you learn that xps is a real condition. The characters were really quite interesting, although the husband's story was a little weak. One thing that viewers might find slightly offensive is that it kind of knocks Christianity a little and also the mother says to ask for forgiveness of the virgin. It also is lacking a kind of moral message that would make it a movie that people would watch over and over again. Over all though it's an interesting movie with lots of twists and a good ending.

The funny thing is, I thought this movie would just be a cheesy horror flick... but it turns out to be a beautifully touching movie. Yes, it is a scary movie, but it's certainly got a lot more depth to it than any other I've ever seen. Beautiful movie. Just watch it!

For a film that reeks of "The Sixth Sense" (the M. Night Shyamalan juggernaut that set a new precedent for paranormal movies), "The Others" still manages to hold its own with a talented cast, excellent and subtle visual effects and a rousing ghost story that like the above mentioned film, contains a predictable yet entertaining twist.

Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman is Grace, a young woman living in the seclusion of the Channel Islands during the close of World War II. Her grand estate has mysteriously emptied itself of each and every one of its servants and with her husband on the front line in France, she is forced to take matters into her own hands and hire an entirely new staff. Before she has even placed an ad in the paper, a man and two women show up at her stoop one misty morning looking for work. Bertha Mills (Flanagan), Mr. Tuttle (Sykes) and Lydia (Cassidy) all previously served in Grace's household years ago when another family occupied its grand quarters. Relieved by their familiarity with the grounds, Grace hires them with nary an inquisition. All she asks of them is their strict attention to the invariable darkness, for Nicolas (Bentley) and Anne (Mann), her two young children, are inflicted with a rare disease that makes them allergic to sunlight - too much exposure can prove fatal.

Once all are settled and the house makes it slow recovery from disrepair, strange goings-on begin to occur. Noises are heard, unidentified voices whisper through the dark hallways and Nicolas and Anne are harassed by an entity named Victor, a young spirit with whom Anne has conversed on several occasions. An ardent Catholic, Grace is skeptical about the possibility of the house being haunted and passes Anne's and Nicolas's allegations off as outrageous stories, forcing them to repent for so-called lies by reading passages out of the bible for hours on end. All the while, Grace fights her own battle with loneliness and the steady slip of her sanity, her grief over the extensive absence of her husband Charles (Eccleston) and the pressure of caring for two children on her own pushing her to the edge.

Director Alejandro Amenabar literally had carte blanche when he did this picture - not only did he direct, but he wrote the screenplay and composed the entire original score, a combination of haunting and beautiful compositions. For a 28-year-old director who was flattered by the 2001 remake of his film "Obre Los Ojos" ("Vanilla Sky") and assumed three major aspects of a motion picture, Amenabar is not just multi-talented - he's an entrepreneur.

In a film like this, lighting and sound are integral and they become metaphoric as well. It is used to great effect by Amenabar - we are at first almost completely in the dark about the truth. Then, slowly, as more light is poured upon it, we begin to see bit by bit the terrible secret that Grace and her children have been hiding all this time. Shadows are aplenty here and the more there are the scarier it is, the viewer's eyes playing just as many tricks on them as the characters. When there is light, it is either stark and blinding or finely covered with cloud and haze, in keeping with the characters' inability to see beyond the present. In order to get the best scares out of his audience, Amenabar keeps the score quiet and illusive, at times completely absent so that the creaks and bumps of the vast manor are all the more disquieting.

There isn't a bad performance to be found here, the movie filled with talented newcomers and favored veterans. Kidman, now an Oscar winner for "The Hours", is the stand-out as Grace, a woman who inwardly endures immense despair and hides her tortured heart from the world with a steely front and her staunch faith. Also excellent are Fionnula Flanagan (Waking Ned Devine) as the warm-hearted Mrs. Mills and Alakina Mann as the headstrong Anne - Mann has to be one of the least precocious and most talented child actors I've seen in a while. I hope she gets more work.

The Dimension Collector's Series 2-disc edition has some interesting bonus material, in particular the Visual Effects Piece which shows all the different layers of digital effects used to create the spooky environs of the mansion and its grounds. Also of interest is the segment "Xeroderma Pigmentosum: What Is It? The Story of a Family Dealing with the Disease Portrayed in The Others" as well as a making-of documentary on the film and a docu-interview on Alejandro Amenabar.

Bottom line: If you haven't seen "The Sixth Sense" or you just like a good ghost story in general, "The Others" is guaranteed to satisfy on many levels.