Kritiken

Alejandro Amenábar’s “The Others” so lucidly speaks to the power of denial that it tends to make other movies — ghost stories and grounded dramas alike — seem as if they’re pretending to commune with it through a Ouija board.

With its dark old house, its persistent past and its invasive hauntings, writer/director Alejandro Amenábar’s fifth feature offers all the trappings of a classic gothic, while turning the screw with a very unusual perspective on these supernatural goings-on.

This old-fashioned ghost story gave Nicole Kidman one of the most satisfying roles of her career. Alejandro Amenábar’s elegant chiller creates more tension from atmosphere alone than most other horror films do from vats full of fake blood.

But it’s the simplicity of The Others that remains its greatest asset: with this funereal atmosphere in place, Amenábar can uncork such haunted house favorites as creaking floorboards, slowly opened doors, lamp-lit shadow play and the echoing moans of the undead.

Reminiscent of Jack Clayton's Henry James adaptation The Innocents, this intelligent chiller relies on atmosphere and suggestion rather than gross-out gore. It's a surprise just how confident and controlled Amenábar's first Hollywood venture turns out to be. Subtle, too... Kidman is pitch perfect. It's a clammy, ingenious film...

What a relief to have a scary movie instead of a Scary Movie - no boring irony, no tiresome inverted commas. It is well constructed, as opposed to incompetently deconstructed.

A cracking bit of psychological horror which should confirm Amenabar's status as one of the hottest directors around.

Shot in oppressive sepia amid near-darkness (Grace's children having a rare ailment that precludes exposure to sunlight), Amenábar racks up the tension to unbearable levels in a spooky shocker that's worthy of any comparison with M Night Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense".

Mr. Amenábar's command of the syntax of fright is impressive. He knows that what we don't see scares us more than what we do see, and he uses some of the simplest, oldest resources of cinema - reverse cuts, swift tracking shots, chattering cellos and screeching violins - to induce prickles of dread and jolts of terror.

The director, Alejandro Amenabar, has the patience to create a languorous, dreamy atmosphere, and Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric. But in drawing out his effects, Amenabar is a little too confident that style can substitute for substance.

Sumptuously crafted, with moody eeriness and almost surreal visual imagery, Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar's The Others is a terrific supernatural thriller that builds and sustains its considerable suspense, without ever relying on violence or special effects.

The Others evokes a hierarchically-informed spirit world where chaos and acceptance is par for course on one’s way to supreme enlightenment. It’s also pretty scary.