Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Screenplay: Alejandro Amenábar
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Elaine Cassidy and Eric Sykes
Country: Spain
Running Time: 104 min
Year: 2001
The ghost story/haunted house sub-genre of horror is one that I’m not as familiar with as I’d like to be. Earlier this year, I checked out Peter Medak’s The Changeling for the first time and quite enjoyed it and when the opportunity came up to cover another film in the sub-genre that’s hailed as a classic, I jumped at it.
The Others is the third film by director Alejandro Amenábar after his thriller Thesis and sci-fi flick Open Your Eyes. If there’s anything to say about Amenábar, it’s that he’s versatile in the projects he handles and even though The Others was his first full-on horror feature, it’s a commendable effort with some great scares and a clear knowledge for how the genre works.
The film follows Grace Stewart, played by Nicole Kidman and her two children Nicolas and Anne, who suffer from xeroderma pigmentosum, a disease that makes them sensitive to light and this results in the majority of the house being shrouded in darkness, with the curtains always closed and only a small light being present when they’re in the room. It’s a solid concept for a spooky, haunted house feature.
When I think of some of my favourite pieces of horror out there, most of the time, I think about artists who weren’t originally familiar with the genre taking a stab at it. The classic 1996 video game Resident Evil was directed by Shinji Mikami, somebody completely unfamiliar with the genre and hated being scared, but that made developer Capcom realise that he’d understand what was really frightening. In the case of The Others, Amenábar states on the bonus features that he took influence from what would scare him as a child and incorporated it into the film and it comes through.
When The Others is at its best, it’s when it’s offering visuals that are unsettling, unusual and unexpected. One that sticks out in particular to me is the sight of a small child who puts their hand out to reveal an old, wrinkly hand of an elderly person. It’s something that could come across as comical if handled poorly, but with tight direction and a lack of reliance on jumpscares, I think The Others succeeds at getting under your skin at points.
Unfortunately, the film’s narrative was a bit of a dud for me, offering some interesting ideas and a twist that’s almost as hyped up as the film itself, but outside of the horror set-pieces and the gorgeous cinematography, I was never fully captivated by the actual narrative and some of the performances, particularly from the children dragged down the experience for me. Don’t get me wrong, I can completely understand why people adore this film so much and there’s a lot to admire, but there was too much holding it back from being a fantastic experience for me on my first viewing.
That being said, given the fact that there’s a reveal in the third act that completely recontextualizes the film, I’m pretty confident in saying that a second viewing of this film could improve the overall experience for me. It’s a film that, outside of not resonating with me in the way I was hoping and some disappointing performances, I can’t really fault a great deal. It’s a well-constructed feature with an excellent lead performance from Kidman, some gorgeous photography, a score that isn’t overbearing and it looks absolutely fantastic on UHD. For those who grew up with the film or saw it when it came out back in 2001, they’ll be pleased with the new release from Studio Canal.
Film: 
The Others released on October 2nd on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Studio Canal. I viewed the UHD release and thought it was excellent. Unusually for a UHD disc, the film doesn’t have a HDR grade but it still looks absolutely stellar and the image quality is brilliant. There’s multiple audio language tracks to choose from and I listened to the English Dolby Atmos track, created exclusively for the UHD release of The Others and it sounded great too. On an A/V level, this is solid. The following extras are included:
- Looking Back At The Others
- The Music of The Others
- A Look Inside The Others
- Visual effects
- Xeroderma Pigmentosum: What Is It?
- An intimate look at director Alejandro Amenábar
- Stills Gallery
- Trailer
Looking Back At The Others – A brand new 50 minute retrospective documentary about the film with interviews from director Alejandro Amenábar, producer Fernando Bovaira, actor Nicole Kidman and more. Amenábar talks about how he wrote the film for fun, and liked to experiment with different genres for each feature film he made, how Miramax/Tom Cruise came on board and it’s a really interesting look back at the film. This is easily the best extra included on the release and I’d absolutely recommend checking it out.
The Music of The Others – A new four minute interview with writer/director/composer Alejandro Amenábar discussing the creation of the score for the film. It’s a short but decent piece.
A Look Inside The Others – An archival 21 minute making-of special created to promote the film, containing interviews with the cast and crew. It’s a good archival piece and hearing how Amenábar based a lot of the horror sequences on elements that scared him as a kid really made sense given how the children are at the centre of some of the big horror set-pieces in the film. A good watch.
Visual effects – An archival featurette that runs for 4 minutes showcasing how visual effects were used in the film to create backgrounds, the fog that surrounds the house and more. A nice inclusion.
Xeroderma Pigmentosum: What Is It? – An archival featurette that runs for around 9 minutes.
discussing Xeroderma pigmentosum, the disease that the children in the film have related to photosensitivity. It features interviews with parents of children who have the disease. An interesting addition that’s worth a look.
An intimate look at director Alejandro Amenábar – An 8 minute archival extra showcasing director Amenábar directing on set. It’s a good watch and fascinating to see how he directs the cast and crew.
A stills gallery and trailer are also included.
While The Others didn’t wow me in the ways I was hoping, I can still understand why so many love it. As previously mentioned, it’s a well-crafted film with some great horror sequences, a killer lead performance and a twist that will surely make for an interesting rewatch in the future. Studio Canal’s presentation is stellar, with a nice assortment of bonus features that compliment the film nicely. I can highly recommend this to fans of haunted house/ghost story films or people who already love the film, it’s a worthy purchase.
Disc/Package:
Leave a Reply