The Others is a well made gothic-drama-horror film featuring wonderful performances, most notably by Nicole Kidman. Under the direction of Alejandro Amenábar, it’s a great movie to watch any time of the year.
The Others
— The Criterion Collection —
(2001)
Genre(s): Drama, Suspense/Thriller
The Criterion Collection | PG13 – 104 min. – $49.95 | October 24, 2023
Date Published: 10/27/2023 | Author: The Movieman
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The Criterion Collection provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 4/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Grace (NICOLE KIDMAN), the devoutly religious mother of Anne (ALAKINA MANN) and Nicholas (JAMES BENTLEY), moves her family to the English coast during World War II. She awaits word on her missing husband while protecting her children from a rare photosensitivity disease that causes the sun to harm them. Anne claims she sees ghosts, Grace initially thinks the new servants are playing tricks but chilling events and visions make her believe something supernatural has occurred. Quick Hit Review: 2001’s The Others was a movie I initially wasn’t totally enamored with, however with time and getting older, I’ve come to appreciate this pretty uncommon gothic thriller that features a fantastic performance from Nicole Kidman who, while did receive various accolades, failed to receive a nomination for Best Actress, as she was well deserving (and frankly, the movie itself should’ve been nominated). Even knowing the ending, the movie still works. Not to be outdone, the child actors, Alakina Mann and James Bentley, were great and in a rarity, not overly precocious or obnoxious. Under the direction of Alejandro Amenábar, The Others is a moody drama that is understated with few jump scares and instead relies on the gothic setting to make the viewer a bit uneasy, combined with a twist ending that was so well done and provides a similar melancholy to that of The Sixth Sense. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4¾/5 |
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This release from The Criterion Collection comes housed in a clear HD Keep Case and includes a fold-out with an essay by scholar Philip Horne. Disc One (4K Ultra HD): Disc Two (Blu-ray): Alejandro Amenábar and Pau Gomez (36:32) — This was produced for The Criterion Collection and features Amenábar and film critic Pau Gomez discussing The Others including themes of religion, faith and belief in the supernatural. A Look Back at The Others (51:05) is a retrospective featurette with Amenábar, Actors Nicole Kidman and Christopher Ecceleston and Producer Fernando Bovaira. The Making of The Others (28:59) is a behind-the-scenes featurette from 2002 and includes interviews with the cast and crew. On the Set (4:30) — This offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of director Amenábar on the set of the film. Art Direction (2:27) features footage of the set design models and costume illustrations with commentary by production designer Benjamin Fernandez. Visual Effects (7:01) — This featurette demonstrates the digital effects applied to several scenes with commentary by visual effects supervisor Felix Berges. Recording the Soundtrack (5:56) is footage shot during a soundtrack recording session. Photographing the Dead (3:05) — This shows footage from a special photography session for one of the key props with commentary by Amenábar. Audition Footage (3:10) for actors Alakina Mann and James Bentley. Deleted Scenes (8:09) — There are seven scenes here either trimmed or removed from the final cut. Theatrical Trailer (2:33) |
4K UHD VIDEO – 5/5, BD VIDEO – 5/5, AUDIO – 5/5 |
| The Others comes to 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray where it’s presented in the original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio, and shown with 2160p and 1080p high-definition transfers, respectively. Per the fold-out, this is a new digital master, created from the 35mm original camera negative and scanned in 4K resolution, and was approved by director Alejandro Amenabar. As such, this is a fantastic looking picture on both formats (for this review, I will be focusing on the 4K UHD disc). Detail is well defined throughout with the natural film grain still showing through while black levels are amazingly stark without appearing crushed nor does any signs of artifacting or aliasing showing.
Both discs come with a new Dolby Atmos track, an upgrade over the previous Blu-ray’s DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. And even though this is a mostly quiet movie, there is some good depth on display with each creek and noise that permeates the house making use of every channel while dialogue comes across with great clarity. |
OVERALL — 4½/5 |
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The Others is a well made gothic-drama-horror film featuring wonderful performances, most notably by Nicole Kidman. Under the direction of Alejandro Amenábar, it’s a great movie to watch any time of the year, but especially Halloween particularly if you’re looking for something on the quieter side than anything gory or loud. |
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