The Others **** (2001, Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan, Eric Sykes) – Classic Movie Review 1805

A highly impressive Nicole Kidman lights up writer-director Alejandro Amenábar’s really eerie 2001 chiller. She plays a mother trying to care for her two light-sensitive children Anne and Nicholas (Alakina Mann, James Bentley) in a spooky mansion on Jersey, while waiting for her soldier husband Charles (Christopher Eccleston) to return from fighting in World War Two.

Afflicted by a weird disease, the kids can’t be exposed to direct sunlight, and they must obey bizarre rules (eg only one door of any room can be open at once). When nutty servants Fionnula Flanagan and Eric Sykes turn up, Nicole hires them and then things go really strange.

This is an extremely moody, spooky, first-rate supernatural chiller, oozing eerie atmosphere and boasting sterling performances. Kidman commands the screen as heroine Grace Stewart, Flanagan is extremely effective as the creepy housekeeper Mrs Bertha Mills and Sykes is entertaining as the old retainer, Mr Edmund Tuttle.

It is lovingly crafted by director Amenábar, maker of Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos), the original of Vanilla Sky, which starred Kidman’s then husband, Tom Cruise, who executive produced The Others with his then business partner Paula Wagner, as well as Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein, plus Fernando Bovaira and José Luis Cuerda. Though separated, both Kidman and Cruise attended the US premiere of this movie.

Don’t expect any action, special effects or gore, but there are oodles of sweaty-palm suspense scenes and a few big shocks in this stylish ghost story.

Renée Asherson (Old Lady), Keith Allen and Elaine Cassidy co-star. Also in the cast are Gordon Reid, Michelle Fairley and Alexander Vince.

London-born Renée Asherson (aka Dorothy Renée Ascherson) died on October 30 2014 at the grand old age of 99. She was last seen on the big screen in Richard Attenborough’s Grey Owl (1999) and here in The Others.

Comedy god Eric Sykes died on July 4 2012, aged 89.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1805

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