The others (2001)

Jersey, 1945. WWII just ended and the nazi occupation of Jersey is finally over.
Grace and her two children Anne and Nicolas live in a desolate house. Her husband has not come back from the war yet and probably never will. There is no electricity or radio in the house, all the curtains must be closed always and all the doors must be locked. These last two things are necessary because the two children are allergic to light, it can even be fatal to them.
All these things make it very hard for Grace and the servants have also ran away. Luckily Mrs. Mills, Mr Tuttle and Lydia arrive to fill these positions.

But soon they find out something strange is going on in the house. Anne insists that something happened, although Nicolas refuses to acknowledge it. There are strange sounds, like laughing while there is nobody there or a piano playing inside a locked room. Who are these other people who also seem to live in the house?

The others is one of the scariest movie I ever saw, perhaps even the scariest. It is all due to the telling of the story and the atmosphere. The story is very well told. The first time I saw the movie I did not get what happened until the very last scenes. When I saw the movie again later I was stunned by the amounts of clues I completely overlooked the first time.

Nicole Kidman as Grace

Nicole Kidman is absolutely amazing (and stunning) as Grace. You can see the tension she feels and how she is barely keeping it together. Very beautifully she shows how Grace desperately tries to keep on to the certainties she has, and how she does not want to believe or acknowledge what happened. The confrontations between her and her daughter are difficult to watch, because you can understand the frustration in both of them.

Fionulla Flanagan is also great as Mrs. Mills. It becomes clear there is more than meets the eye and also that Mrs. Mills knows more about it. Christopher Eccleston, Keith Allen and Elaine Cassidy play small parts.
The others is one of my favorite movies and I really recommend it if you haven’t seen it yet.