PLOT: A woman and her photosensitive children live in an old house that may be haunted. 

Story time: when The Others came out on DVD, my sister and my mother rented and watched it while my father and I were away doing whatever. When we came home, my sister was upset because my mother figured out the ending almost immediately. Then, my mom shouted to my father and I (who hadn’t seen it): “Oh, that movie was stupid. I knew they were dead the whole time.” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason I have never seen The Others until now. 

It’s hard to parse whether or not I would’ve figured it out on my own before the ending. It’s definitely obvious when you know the ending and I do go into these movies about old houses with the idea that everyone is probably dead unless told otherwise. So, maybe I would have. But I never got the opportunity. 

In spite of this, when my wife and I sat down to watch it this October, I enjoyed it. The ending isn’t as cut and dry as my mother made it seem; there were some other wrinkles to everything, but more or less, that’s the ending. It’s still a really well done atmospheric ghost story. It’s not terribly scary, but it works much in the same way this year’s The Haunting of Bly Manor worked. It’s sad, moody, and a great performance by Nicole Kidman acts as the cornerstone of the film. 

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10