Review of The Others (2001) by Mickelwick — 05 Jan 2013

Okay, I was shown this as per the "gothic" section of the year ten english curriculum (in australia), and DEAR ZOMBIE JESUS DOES THIS MOVIE SUCK!

First off the bat, the twist ending, for anyone observant enough, is downright obvious within the first half hour, why? m. night shayamalan made the sixth sense in 1996, a decent film that had a mind-blowing twist, in 1999, the japanese, whether they had heard of the sixth sense or not, nonetheless, refined the formula and gave us a more psychologically daunting and horrific take on the idea with silent hill, and in 2001, the others completely leeches off both of them (even the fog) to try and refine the "people who don't know they're dead" concept, which fails pitifully to bring anything fresh to the table, or to even creep me out, and even if you hadn't seen or heard of either of these things, it would still be obvious if you payed attention, because it is executed so sloppily!

Secondly, the scares are NON-F**KING-EXISTENT, why? because the twist is so obvious and, just like paranormal activity, it does not give you anything to be scared of, oh, the curtains are down, how scary, oh, the plastic tarp (plastic tarp? one word: ANACHRONISM) rustled, how scary, oh, someone is walking loudly on the floor above, how scary... need I say, er... type more? only two scenes are creepy throughout the mercilessly dull 105 minute runtime: that iconic scene with anne in the pretty dress, and the scene where the housekeepers are confronting grace on the steps of her manor, after the little revelation that they're... TAKE ONE GODDAMN GUESS!

Thirdly, the performances... dear god... nicole kidman is TERRIBLE, what is particularly amusing is roger ebert said the following "nicole kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation" her character is painted, from the start, as a thinly-veiled psychotic lunatic, I had no empathy for her, and because of that, all the scares that should have worked despite the poor twist fall flat, james bently was a terrible child actor playing a terrible child character, frankly, I wouldn't care if he died a violent horrific death, and that is not a good thing, alakina mann was one of three talented people in the entire movie, she was a decently realized character, and thus, I cared about her, which is why the scene I mentioned earlier worked so effectively, eric sykes and fionulla flanagan were great as the housekeepers, who manage to make otherwise flat dialogue oddly chilling, the story behind the maid was chilling, even if elaine cassidy wasn't really good as the maid.