The Others

The Others is a well-rounded and stylish horror film closely related to Jack Clayton's Henry James adaptation "The Innocents". It is a film without big or gory shock effects, but the lurking menace was enough to make me jump in my seat several times and otherwise glance over my shoulder at regular intervals for the rest of the evening.

The Others is set just after the end of the Second World War. The young woman Grace and her two children Anne and Charles are the only occupants of a remote mansion. Large parts of the house are kept in darkness, as the children are supposedly allergic to sunlight. Three servants arrive at the house: the gardener Mr Tuttle, the deaf-mute girl Lydia and the nanny Bertha Mills.

Anne claims that she is in contact with spirits in the big house. Grace, who is bringing the children up strictly in the Catholic faith, rejects such superstitious nonsense in the strongest terms. Gradually, however, she too begins to hear sounds where there should be none.

One would think that peace and order would be restored when Grace's husband Charles, who has been missing since the war, suddenly turns up, but instead the situation comes to a head. Grace feels backed into a corner when it turns out that the servants know far more than they have so far let on.

"The Sixth Sense" looks like an obvious source of inspiration for the film's ending, where the surprising twist casts an explanatory light over everything inexplicable, mysterious and frightening.