Day 120: The Others

The Others is probably one of my favorite horror movies I have only seen once or twice. It is one of those that is fun to show to other people (if they don't know the twist). One of my pet peeves with haunted house movies is, how do you make ghosts dangerous? If they can just look scary or make noises, there isn't much to them. If they can interact with the environment and even touch people, it makes them much scarier. The Others handles this one in a pretty great way.

I'm going to try to talk around the big twist so that anyone who hasn't seen this can still enjoy it. Nicole Kidman stars as a wife and mother who lives in England in the aftermath of World War 2. She is raising two creepy children who are photosensitive and can never be exposed to sunlight. Her husband has gone off to war and hasn't come back yet (things are looking grim). With a small staff in the house, she tries to keep her shit together when it becomes clear they are no longer alone in their home. Like other movies that figure out ways to raise the ghost stakes (like Below), the child endangerment factor means that the others don't have to punch or claw the children, they can just open a shade and it is potentially deadly. As the movie winds its way towards a cool payoff, we get lots of classic ghost story moments...pianos playing by themselves, doors slamming, footsteps...and it creates a perfect mood of tension.

If you like haunted house movies and haven't seen this, you are missing out for sure. I would highly recommend The Others for horror buffs, in general. If nothing else, it changed the discussion of what a haunted house movie could be.