The Others

[chambraigne]

Has anyone else seen the new movie, "The Others"? If so, what did you think of it? I thought it was an excellent suspense movie/thriller and was actually more scary than most horror movies, because of its perpetually-on-the-edge-of-your-seat quality. After looking at the message boards for it on IMDB.com, I found that I liked it more, seeing different people's takes on different aspects of the story and what they meant.

[Dogzilla]

Not necessarily because it was poorly done, but simply because I figured out the "twist" at the end within the first five minutes of the movie.

Also, it was dark. Physically dark. Poor lighting throughout. There's a scene early in the movie where someone turns out the lights and pulls the curtains. My friend attending the movie with me, turned to me and whispered, "For the rest of this movie, we will see no daylight at all. The whole thing is going to be dark."

Sho' nuff.

I just thought it was entirely too predictable.

[Nocturne]

I thought it was very very very well done. I'm usually decent at figuring out endings, but I didn't really catch it...this one surprised me.

I liked the darkness--to me, it added to the movie.

[invisibleOLDlady]

I loved it. The ending wasn't surprising, but I didn't care. I used to love those cheesy horror novels by authors no one has ever heard of in the public library, so maybe that's why.

And the husband looks like mine, except the actor isn't a skinny guy in his 20's that's almost always smiling.

[delphica]

We just saw this tonight, and I enjoyed it very much. I'm a big fraidy cat at movies, and so I jumped and screamed at all the right places.

I was especially impressed by the two child actors. There are so many awful children in movies these days that it was good to see two talented young actors.

My only criticism is that Nicole Kidman's character didn't progress or change very much over the course of the film. Once the ending is revealed, this does make some sense, but I don't think this is good filmmaking.

I suspected the ending, but then sort of forgot my suspicions because I became annoyed that the writers had messed up the timeline of the war so I then had to spend a lot of time rolling my eyes and less time paying attention to the plot. I felt like a big dope because the war details are supposed to (I think) hint at the ending, not at the stupidity of the writers. Once again I was foiled by intellectual snobbery.

[obfusciatrist]

Well done and well acted. Unfortunately I figured it out pretty early, with such a certainty that I never doubted I was correct. That did take something away from it.

Dogzilla: I didn't think it was that dark. Yes, the environments were dark, but I didn't have any trouble seeing anything. Are you sure that your theater had the projector lamp turned to the appropriate level (this is a pet peeve of Roger Ebert's, that theaters will try to extend the life of bulbs by turning them down)?