癲狂院 Vixen Owl Cigar..。o○

A GREAT OLD FASHIONED GHOST STORY


The Best Suspense Since The Sixth Sense..
Generally when you refer to a movie as "old-fashioned ", that's a polite way of saying the film is outdated, campy or trite.
But in the case of Alejandro Amenabar's fantastic film, "old-fashioned " is intended as high praise.
Rarely have modern horror films been able to re-capture the "eerie silences " so prevalent in the classic haunted house tales of yesteryear.
Thanks to a deft directorial hand, a wonderful attention to detail and some gloriously entertaining performances, The Others ranks among the best movies of the year.

The setting is a massive mansion in the years following WWII.
The lady of the house is Grace, a beautiful woman who is waiting patiently for her husband to return home from the war.
Grace has two young children (Anne and Nicholas ), both of whom suffer from a severe aversion to sunlight.
The family has recently been deserted by their staff of servants, and Grace is relieved when a trio of employees arrive at the house.
As Grace tries to raise and educate her children, Anne proves to be a source of frustration.
The young girl claims to have seen 'others ' roaming about the cavernous hallways, and this news irritates Grace (and her ultra-religious sensibilities ) to no end.
Of course the housekeeper, Mrs. Mills, knows a lot about the house's history that she's not willing to share.

"The Others " stars Kidman as Grace, a solo mother living in a big old mansion in the middle of nowhere.
Her two children, Anne (Alakina Mann ) and Nicholas (James Bently ) have a rare photosensitive condition that means too much light will kill them.
Thus, all the curtains in the house must be drawn at all times, and every door must be closed and locked before another is to be opened. Grace's husband, Charles, went to fight in the war and his family are still waiting for him to return.. That's the existence Grace and her children have been living for a long time.. One day, their world is changed when three workers Grace advertised for turn up.. Bertha Mills (Fionnula Flanagan) appears to be the leader of the three, and interacts with Grace most often......

【Christopher Eccleston】Others【Nicole Kidman】
Could it Be That I AGREE With Simply_Crispy???

The Others is a ghost story remeniscent of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (filmed as The Innocents with Deborah Kerr ) and Robert Wise's The Haunting.
It also reminded me of Lewis Gilbert's underseen The Haunted with Aidan Quinn.
Nicole Kidman is a young mother living in a large and gloomy house on the English Channel Island of Jersey at the end of World War II.
The oppressive climate, a Nazi occupation, and the illness of her two young children (Alakina Mann and James Bently - both superb ) have taken their toll on her nerves.
Her children are photosensitive requiring her to keep her house shrouded in gloom to protect them while waiting for her husband (Christopher Eccleston ) to return from the war.

Into this tense situation come three servants, a kindly housekeeper (Finnoula Flanagan ), a mute maid (Elaine Cassidy ) and a doddering gardner (Eric Sykes ) and soon things are going bump in the night.
Are the new servants not what they appear ? Is the house truly haunted ?
Is everything the product of Kidman's imagination ?
To tell more would be to give away the surprises the film has in store.

Amenabar does triple duty in this film, not just as writer and director but also as composer.
This is a film of atmosphere where dread and suspense is built carefully, piece by piece, not just through visual but through aural detail.
Amenabar drops hints and clues as to the real goings on throughout the film but they tend to be opaque until all is explained and he has learned a lesson that Hollywood has long since forgotten - less is more.
The film is much more about what is not shown than what is shown.
Even the music , which is often subtle, drops out to emphasize moments and the absence of action.
The moments of terror, when they come, and they do, are real because of the skill Amenabar has used to feed our expectations and then confound them.

The film was financed by Tom Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner for a miniscule (by Hollywood standards) $17 million.
The low budget and confined setting has forced Amenabar to use his imagination and to take us on a ride with him in the tradition of Hitchcock and other masters of the suspense film.
Cruise is remaking Amenabar's earlier Spanish language film, Abra Los Ojos as a vehicle for himself and Penelope Cruz (who also starred in the original ).
If this is a success, Amenabar can write his own ticket in Hollywood.
I hope, however, that success and an access to bigger budgets doesn't corrupt him the way it did someone like Paul Verhoven who went from minor masterpieces like The Fourth Man to Showgirls.

Nicole Kidman does a gr8 job with her character's vulnerability and emotional changes.
I've never cared for her much in her big Hollywood vehicles but smaller, independent roles have showed her unquestionable talent.
One need only look at Flirting, Dead Calm, To Die For, or Portrait of a Lady to know that there is a nuanced and smart actress under the Hollywood glamor queen.
The supporting roles are all smartly cast and exquisitely played.
This one is worth a look.
See it instead of one of those insipid sequels that's being foisted upon us.

Kerosene lamps. Corpse photographs. Stringent Catholicism.
Catechisms. School lessons. Buried gravestones. Opaque eyes.
Locked music room. Drainpipe climbing......

What a refreshing thing to see: a classy, creepy and effective 'ghost story ' in this age of CGI poltergeists and fake, hollow scares.


If the recent remakes of The Haunting, 13 Ghosts and The House on Haunted Hill have turned you off to the "ghost flick", then this is the movie for you.