13 days ’til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween…. 13 days ’til Halloween, Silverrrr Shamrock!!

Now that little ditty is stuck in my head, and likely yours too, if you recognize it ( it’s from the terribly awful 1982 movie Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and the only thing I really remember from the movie. It is both a figural and literal ear worm, you might say. lolz)

At any rate, it’s 13 days until Halloween, so here’s #4 of my spooky and scary movie list. This one actually is both spooky and scary. “Finally!” you say.

The Others (2001): Written and Directed by Alejandro Amenabar

This film, released in 2001, checks all the boxes for a really good “old-fashioned”, you might say, Gothic-style, haunted house frightener.

The writer and director of The Others is Chilean-born Alejandro Amenabar. His father was from Chile, his mother a Spaniard. Amenabar lived most of his life in Madrid. He is mostly known to American audiences because of the film, Vanilla Sky (2001). Starring Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz, Vanilla Sky was based off of his 1997 film, Abre Los Ojos, which he wrote and directed. The American “version”, which became Vanilla Sky, was directed by James Cameron, who Amenabar counts as one of his favorite directors. Amenabar also composes the music for all of his movies, having taught himself to write music using a computer software program.

The Others cast includes top actress Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge, Cold Mountain, Big Little Lies), veteran Irish character actress, Fionnula Flannagan (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood), Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who, Shallow Grave) and Alakina Mann and James Bentley.

The movie has a rather slow beginning, but keeps your interest, and gives plenty of curious incidents, peculiar behavior and spooky vibes early on, along with an unrelenting dark atmosphere and almost desolate setting for the film, which is a rather isolated country estate in Jersey, the largest island in the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands are an archipelago of islands in the English Channel, just off the coast of Normandy, France. The large estate and it’s grounds are surrounded by woods and fields almost always shrouded in fog and shadows.

The year is 1945, the tail end of World War II. The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles that were occupied by Germany during the war. The British government demilitarised the islands in June 1940, and the lieutenant-governors were withdrawn on June 21, leaving the insular administrations to continue government as best they could under impending military occupation, so the few residents of Jersey who did not evacuate are almost cut off from the rest of the world as they await the end of the war and liberation. In fact, they do not even have electricity anymore, or get mail delivery. Grace Stewart (Kidman) and her two children, with a few servants, live in almost complete isolation, awaiting her husband, Charles, to return from the war. Grace has not heard from her husband for some time, and she is fearful that he is dead. In the beginning scene, three servants arrive at the estate to inquire about employment, where Grace tells them that she is in dire straits as her previous servants “disappeared” suddenly and without warning in the night. Mrs. Mills (Flannagan) is hired on as the housekeeper, Mr. Tuttle (Eric Sykes) as the gardener and Lydia ( Elaine Cassidy), who is mute, is hired as a maid.

As Grace shows Mrs. Mills around the house and explains what her duties will be, Grace reveals that her two children, Anne (Mann) and Nicholas (Bentley) have a rare disorder that makes them photosensitive to light, and so, there is a complex ( and rather strange) set of rules that must be followed when moving between the various rooms in the huge house, regarding the curtains and the sequences of locking doors. Grace is rather adamant in her insistence that the rules must be followed to the letter and she becomes visibly upset, almost hysterical, when she perceives that rules are not being followed as she has directed. Grace is deeply religious and at times strict with her children, and the household has a very oppressive feel; her constant fear that her children will be exposed to sunlight and die and her worry about her husband and their situation is palpable. Her fragile state soon becomes even more fragile when strange occurrences begin to manifest; strange noises, voices, curtains that are supposed to be closed in a locked room are inexplicably open, sending Grace into hysteria. Her daughter Anne (Mann) tells her that the voices belong to a boy named Victor, and that she has seen him and his family and that they live in the house, they claim the house “belongs” to them in fact, which prompts Grace to punish Anne, at first, for “telling tales” until Grace begins to hear the voices herself.

The ambiguity of the three servants and their motives, who appeared so suddenly ( and mysteriously, since there is no mail delivery and hence, no newspapers to advertise in) adds further to the suspense and that they seem to have some sort of connection to the house in the past (and to the previous servants) is unsettling and makes the viewer begin to question whether they are friend or foe.

Many of the scenes take place at night and thus, are appropriately spooky, but there are also many which take place in the day time, but because of the childrens’ asserted medical condition and the always heavily shuttered windows, there is a pervasive dark atmosphere throughout the film, with plenty of shadows and dark corners that may harbor any sort of eerie presence. There are also many rooms and corridors in the large estate house, many of them un-used or utilized for storage, the furnishings within shrouded in ghostly dust-cloths, all which add a sense of unease.

Kidman does a wonderful job as the intense, yet fragile Grace, who seems to be hovering always on the brink of a breakdown even before the mysterious occurrences start in the household. Dealing with the daunting medical condition of her children, at the same time trying to see to their education (since there is no school for them to attend), the uncertainty of her husband’s fate, the isolation and loneliness, and the fear that Nazis might show up on their doorstep at any moment all contribute to her personal turmoil.

She believes there are intruders in her home, and her lack of success at finding the intruders or explain who or what is responsible for the increasingly frightening incidents and other disturbing discoveries, drives her to fear for her life, as well as her children’s lives, and she takes more drastic steps to protect them. At the same time her temper becomes increasingly short, even erratic.

Alakina Mann does a superb job as the sometimes willful Anne, who tries her mother’s patience on many occasions, and wishes for more freedom from her mother’s strictness, and is frustrated by her mother’s punishments. James Bentley is excellent as Grace’s young son Nicholas, who is often petulant for having to always stay indoors and is too young to really understand much of why they have to live as they do and at times is too needy for Grace’s nerves, which are increasingly on edge. Fionnula Flanagan as the ambiguous Mrs. Mills also greatly enhances the story.

The story is, in conclusion, quite a good one–a good old fashioned ghost tale, with a period-perfect mansion and costumes, strong acting, spooky and spine-chilling scenes and an unexpected twist ending. It’s one of my favorites, that I can still watch without being bored, even if I already know how it ends.

As director and writer Alejandro Amenabar himself has said, “I don’t consider myself a dark person. I just like to play with dark characters.” This film perfectly fits the bill.