The Others: Movie Review

Media: Horror film review

The others, which was produced in 2001 and directed by Alejandro Amanenabar is a horror/thriller which is about a family of a mother and two young children who are living in a house during the 1940’s at the time of World War Two. The children suspect and have encounters with what they think are a family of ghosts. The mother is constantly waiting for the return of her husband who is fighting in the war. Throughout the film, there are foreshadowing moments which suggests the family’s life isn’t that of a usual, happy family and in the end it is revealed that the ghosts in the house are actually the living ones and the family whose lives we’ve been following are actually the supernatural spirits. The children died of an outcome of the mother suffocating them with a pillow; however the mother believed that she and her children were given a second chance at life from God. However, this was not the case, after the suffocation, the mother shot herself with a rifle. This is foreshown throughout the film by the mother’s first encounter with a rifle; she becomes uneasy and from then on uses it as her weapon whenever she suspects danger. The film contains both historical and institutional context; it is set at the time of the war which is obvious from the costume and the storyline. Another major contextual theme is that of religion. There are constant references throughout the film on how religious the family are which is another reason why the mother refuses to believe that her and her children are dead and in contact with what could be spirits: because the dead and the alive never meet until the end of eternity.

 

 

The scene where the mother first goes on a search for an intruder includes a lot of effective techniques which result in audiences feeling tense and frightened. As the mother approaches the room, the camera is moving slowly and also gives a point of view shot to the door. When she enters the room, it is light. Usually, this would be settling to an audience but because the mother is convinced her children are allergic to the light, the whole film is shot in low-key, dark lighting. The audience have become used to the dark and feel safer in that environment. When she enters the light, it becomes immediately unsettling and tense. This scene includes parallel music as it reflects the suspense that the camera is showing. As the mother starts the search in the room, the director has used quick montage to add to the tension and horror of what may be found. The scene made me personally feel uneasy and on the edge of my seat because I felt in the world of the characters and was scared of what may come out of this search. However, I think that the scene was beautifully shot and was successful in creating suspense.

 

Another scene which I found impressive was the one towards the end when the alive “intruders” were trying to contact the dead family who the audience began to know and connect with. The alive people were sat around the table with someone who was sketching what was being said by the dead, as the mother approached, she was unhappy about being in contact with the alive and being found out about her brutal killings. At this point, the camera shows you the scene from both the alive and the dead families perspective. This is the first time in the film that us as an audience see the family as ghosts. This piece of cinema is the one moment in the film which I found mesmerising. The camera was tracking the table where they were sat, one moment showing the dead family along with the alive, the next only the alive family were shown. This shocked me as I was so used to the family and was convinced they were alive throughout the whole film, so this piece of cinematography I believe was more than successful in its aim to show the audience the real perception of the family.

 

Whilst watching the film, I noticed that it used several of the horror genre conventions. One which was used successfully was the use of creepy location. The house that it was set in was extremely large and grey looking giving it a connotation of coldness. Each room in the house was the opposite of homely and gave the audience scary vibes. The house was next to a forest and had a lot of land outside of it with gravestones. All of these features added to the creepiness of the location and was stereotypical of the horror genre. However, it all adds up to an overall feel of terror and unhappiness. An editing technique used throughout the film to make the audience jump and feel on edge was collision cutting. It was used really successfully in the scene where the mother is looking for the intruder in the junk room. The scene starts off silent with the only noise being her uneasy breathing, and as the scene gets tenser there is a sudden screech of violin music that is parallel to the action in the film. This alone is a feature which I believe makes a scene a lot more successful in creating a scared and jumpy audience. A theme which ran through the film was that of loneliness. The mother especially showed the audience how lonely was by the constant mourning of her husband, it was obvious she was incapable of coping without his presence and this began to make me personally feel the emotions she was feeling. I empathised with her character even though she wasn’t dealing with it in a correct way. The whole contextual idea of the war adds to this loneliness theme as war itself has connotations of coldness, unhappiness and loneliness for the soldiers and the families left behind. The mother also hints of her loneliness when she says angrily about the servants leaving her.  The ending of this film was not an open ending, however I wouldn’t say it was an unhappy ending either. Without looking deeply into it, it may seem an unhappy ending. However, I believe that the family themselves are now free from any regret or loneliness they may have been feeling, that they are now content with their lives and their house. To me, it seems they have got through each obstacle and are now finally content. Another thing which suggests the ending was happy is that the constant fog that was present throughout the film was finally gone and the rooms were now light. This shows the audience that the light is now normality again for the family and for us, and darkness was only their usual reality because of the misery their lives were in.
 

When it comes to my own trailer, I would like to include several aspects of this film in it. The psychological side of horror which is shown in The Others is definitely the path in which I want my trailer to go down, to me, the psychological horrors are the ones  which I find more interesting, believable and entertaining. The unexpected twist at the end of this movie is something I would like my horror trailer to hint at. I don’t want to reveal the twist in my trailer otherwise it would be giving everything away but to make the audience believe there could be a twist will draw them in further and make them more interested. A technical aspect which I would like my trailer to contain is the effective use of collision cutting and camera angles. I believe when this is done right, this shapes a trailer and gives it added quality needed to be successful. However, there are some aspects of the film which I would avoid in my own trailer. The theme of religion is one that does not appeal to me personally as I believe it could be unrealistic and boring to some audiences, also I don’t personally enjoy the link of religion and horror within a movie as it can be disturbing to some potential audiences. Another aspect I would avoid in my own trailer is the idea of darkness being normality and positive. I think that this was done effectively in The Others but in my opinion, it leaves the cultural dominant ideology and representation of horror films’ stereotypes too far that some viewers may not understand it and find it strange.
 

The most enjoyable moment of the film was the scene at the end where the alive family encountered with the dead, I believe this cinematography was so successful and dominant in terms of the whole film that it is something which I would love to recreate in my own horror trailer.