The Others (2001)

"The Others" is a stylistic ghost film set in England at the end of World War 2. The film strength relies on the darkness with the sun being hidden behind thick, heavy curtains, and from the pure isolation of the country house where the characters reside. They are cut off from the rest of the world, for better but much more for the worse. The soundtrack adds a layer of drawn out intensity and Nicole Kidman is the driving force as the main character Grace. This film might be a bit too slow for some and once you know the ending, the film loses whatever replay value it may have had. The story itself isn't very deep but this is a straight forward ghost story that delivers the promise of a ghost  or two.

Grace is a lone mother raising her two small children in a secluded country house far from the battlefields of World War 2. She is patiently waiting for her husband to come home from the war front by her loneliness is becoming apparent. The film begins when three strangers arrive to take positions as servants within the house. Grace hires them and as she shows them around, she explains that her children suffer from a rare disease that prevents them from being exposed to sunlight without being harmed. The rules are so strict that Grace makes sure that everyone knows that one door must be locked so the next may be opened to avoid any accidents from taking place. About the time that the servants arrive, Anne begins telling her brother Nicholas about a young ghost named Victor. She scares her brother to the point that Grace has to punish her but Anne refuses to apologize because she hasn't done anything wrong. Anne later draws a picture of four ghosts including Victor, a man and a woman, and an older women. After Grace finds various doors left opened that the servants swear that they did not use, she becomes concerned that there are others in the house with them. Odd events continue to take place including the disappearance of all of the thick curtains that are used to protect her children as well as the sudden appearance of Grace's husband Charles. Charles seems lost and distant and after a single day he tells Grace that he has to return to the front, even though the war is over. After this, the presence of the "Others" becomes stronger, forcing Grace to confront the truth about what is really going on.