THE OTHERS

Nobody talks about The Others anymore, and I feel bad for it. It came out in 2001 around the time of The Blair Witch Project, The Sixth Sense and The Ringand it was a huge hit. It was a big time for ‘The’ things. The Strokes, The White Stripes, The War in Iraq. Anyway, it’s a serious movie starring the very serious Nicole Kidman. This is her biggest movie. Isn’t that crazy? She’s never been the star of a bigger movie than The Others. I went back to re-watch The Othersbecause I thought it was unfair that this movie was not talked about! It is deeply unfair! And then I re-watched the movie… and, look. There’s a reason nobody talks about this movie anymore.

I am about to spoil this twenty-year-old film with this refreshing insight: nobody talks about this movie because you can’t re-watch it. Once you know the ending it stops being anything. The Others is about Nicole Kidman and her children, who are deathly allergic to sunlight and spend all of their time in a creepy old mansion reading by candlelight. It’s set in the olden days and there are ghosts about. These ghosts are opening doors. Things going bump in the night. Everybody is freaking out. BUT. And here’s the twist: Nicole and her family and her servants are the ghosts.

And once you know that, the movie does not work because nothing scary is happening at all. Every door that Nicole sees slammed, or curtain she finds opened, was because of Jeremy or Bianca or whatever their names are wandering around in the current day shutting doors like normal. It would be scary for Jeremy and Bianca because the curtains and doors in their time are being shut by ghosts, but the movie isn’t from their point of view. It’s from the point of view of the ghosts.

Where would I fit into The Others? The film ends with the new owners leaving and a FOR SALE sign being put up. That’s where I come in. No way I’d turn down the opportunity to check out a house inspection of a creepy looking mansion.

IF I WERE IN 'THE OTHERS' I WOULD: NEVER TRUST THE WIND AGAIN