I Watched The Others With Others (The Others movie review)

 

The Others (2001)

I streamed The Others with a bunch of my international friends. Even before watching it, two out of six of us had seen it already and highly recommended it (I had never seen it). After it ended, the rest of us were raving too. 

At the beginning, it became pretty clear quickly that there was some kind of haunting. Specific word choices foreshadowed to the ending of the family being ghosts, like the housekeeping family alluding to tuberculosis, the children talking (or avoiding talking) about the day their mom went mad, or the girl describing Victor's family 'viewing' the house. Yet, the all of these were done subtly enough to suspend belief until closer to the end of the film.

The point-of-view of the main character not realizing she was dead was great. It shows stages of grief and how she got caught in denial. Yet later she says she thought God had given her a second chance with her children, so she knew all along and so did the children. The movie kept you thinking throughout it, unsure of the source of the haunting events and who if anyone were really the ghosts.

This point-of-view a very strange way to show a movie since most hauntings are told from the perspective of the living humans. Plus, ghosts are generally seen as the ominous and destructive ones, like poltergeists. Leaning on the common destructive trope helps suspend belief for the viewer, especially when things like Victor opening the curtains occur. We assume he is trying to haunt the children and kill them because of their photosensitivity, but in actuality it is the children and mom that are the ghosts closing and locking doors on the living.

Despite adoring this movie, I thought the plot line with the father was pretty unnecessary. He died on the battlefield and should have stayed there since traumatic deaths generally don’t naturally pass on, they haunt where they were killed. But the father came to say goodbye to his family as if he could move on easily once he did that. Honestly, all that added nothing to the plot either. The only purpose he served was to get the mother back to the house from the fog, but she could have just gotten lost and kept ending up at the house until she gave up.

That being said, I had no other qualms with the movie. It kept me entertained through and through. It even kept my fiancé entertained, and he can be very picky with movies, especially with pacing. If you thought my review of Paranormal Activity was scathing, you should have heard his. But The Others he thoroughly enjoyed, much to my surprise given the older movie setting and vibe. The only issue my entourage had was confusion about whether the kids were actually photosensitive while alive or not.

Other feedback from my crew was: An interesting take on a trope and a very original idea. Instead of the house being haunted, they were the ones doing the haunting, but without realizing it. For once, the audience gets a haunted house movie that isn’t scary!

Overall: I would watch this again despite knowing the ending. It seems like the type of movie that you’d notice new little things each time you watch it again.