31 Days Of Hallowe'en: The Others (2001)
Welcome to JOE's 31 Days Of Hallowe'en. For each and every day of October, we'll be bringing you a horror movie to tuck into for the lead up to the big night. It could be new, old, an undiscovered gem, or a classic you'll have seen a thousand times. No matter what it is, we guarantee you that it is brilliant, and it is SCARY.
For Day 22, we're looking back over 2001's darkness-cloaked ghost-story, The Others.
The Sixth Sense gets a lot of (admittedly well-deserved) praise for being a smart and scary ghost story with a fantastic twist.
However, The Others betters it in just about every way imaginable, and fails to get nearly as much attention.
At the time of release, it did reasonably well - the $17 million production made over $200 million at the box office - but it doesn't get brought up enough in conversations about great modern horror movies.
So we are here to rectify that, because The Others absolutely deserves your praise and attention.
Clip via Movieclips Trailer Vault
Set not long after World War II, Nicole Kidman plays the mother of two young children in a large and remote country house, on an island just off the English coast. She is awaiting the return of her husband (Christopher Eccleston) from the war, and in the days before he is due back him, the staff in her home suddenly go missing, and she is forced to hire new ones.
Soon afterwards, she and her children begin to feel a presence within their home, taking advantage of the perma-darkness the house must be kept in, as her young son's skin has a natural allergic reaction to direct sunlight.
The Others is about as old-school horror as it can get, but made with a very savvy, modern mind, pushing the camera - and Nicole Kidman, and by association, the viewer - into the most tension-riddled positions, her (and our) eyes darting all over the place looking for the eventual source of the jump scare.
And then there's that plot twist ending, which we stand by saying is better and more satisfying than the one we were given by The Sixth Sense.
Check out our previous recommendations below:
Day 2 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Day 13 - Friday The 13th (1980)
Day 19 - The Blair Witch Project
