I saw this on AMC last night at about 3 in the morning (which might be why I didn't like it), and it put me to sleep. Literally. All I got from it was a bunch of random things happening, I thought maybe the mother was a ghost or something, or the evil twin was, and then some kid jumped on a pitchfork and died. It was really boring, and I'd expected better from this.
But is this the first movie to have the "evil twin" theme?
This film is NOT a jump out of your seat horror movie. It is a subtle, psychological horror movie that is directed very much in the style of Mulligan's previous TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. While there are "events" in the film that are horrific (the baby) it is more character driven than most films. ANd of course it has that jaw-dropping twist about three quarters of the way through.
shareare you the kind of person that likes horror movies like Wrong Turn and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre? If you are, then that's probably why this movie wasn't for you. It's much more physcological and just has a really eerie atmosphere.
As for the evil twins, I'm not sure, but probably not.
Totally untrue. I don't know about the original poster, but I personally love psychological horror movies--Rosemary's Baby is one of my favorites, for example--but I didn't really like The Other at all and cannot comprehend the tremendous praise heaped upon it. The Other was well made, but the story line was fairly incoherent and confusing, and the movie didn't really become interesting until the very end--but by then it was too late. My reaction to The Other was similar to my reaction to Let's Scare Jessica To Death: What's all the fuss about? I will say, however, that The Other makes Jessica look like a horror masterpiece in comparison.
shareAs someone who cannot STAND the trashy, Hollywood garbage you mentioned, I really didn't like this film. I found it to be rather dull, pointless, and melodramatic to the point of being silly. We have an hour of two boys running around a farm doing naughty things while mother clutches her pearls and wrings her hands..and then you have the big 'revelation,' and then more tedious goings-on. Somebody compared this exercise in mediocrity to "Rosemary's Baby," and I really had to laugh. There is a reason that the Polanski film is known everywhere, and this drivel is relegated to obscurity; it's just not that good.
Fabio Testi is GOD
Perhaps it was boring because it was three in the morning.
I saw this film when I was in grade school and I understood it completely.
Give it a second chance.
Me too. I saw this film a couple of times on TV when I was maybe 6 or 8 at the oldest, and it has stuck with me through all the years as quite compelling. So if an 8 year old kid can follow it and enjoy it....I don't want to get insulting.
shareFour pages of commentary on a 36 year old film that people still remember with chills?
What part of that says, "boring"?
"No fate but what we make." -Terminator II
i got bored with it, too, around the 50minute mark, it picks up a bit at the end, but i couldn't really get into it
http://www.coprophagor.com/flatmar.htm
Too many films today ONLY rely on shock value & gore. I find THAT to be predictable & boring.
This seems to really be "dumbing down" generations of moviegoers. In my opinion, this is one of the best pyschological thrillers out there.
"The Other" has been one of my favorite movies for many years. I only saw it once, but remember the details of it so vividly. It really stuck with me.
I try to tell others about the movie, but they just give me a blank stare & say, "I've never even heard of it." It's frustrating!
Okay, now imagine me finding all of this discussion going on in here. I'm jumping up & down, Lol!
I need to find this movie on DVD. I must have it.
Randy G. :)
One of the creepist films ever made. I remember watching this on the CBS Friday night movie years ago and being about the same age as the Miles/Holland characters ,it really spooked me as I wasn't sure if some supernatural thing was going on or was this boy just a psychopath. A terrifying thought even now. Also all the American Gothic touches really make even more sinister. A great unknown horror classic IMO.
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2nd coming of Christ is a bit much!!!! Personally, I loved the movie and remember seeing it for the first time back in the early 70's on tv. I've seen it many times since. No, it isn't a Freddy vs Jason type of horror film but I thought it was very scary but in a different sense.
Sorry you didn't like the film.
Mmmm looking at your list of comments on "Jason" and other slasher flicks its no wonder you found this atmospheric suspense thriller boring. It's not a horror film by the way but a suspense film--different genre different expectations and focuses much more on character than on shock value--something that's lost on today's immature audience.
shareI agree with those comments, wtdk123. After the horror movies of the 80's and 90's, I think audiences have a different expectation for a horror film. I would compare this film with another more recent suspense film, The Sixth Sense. In fact, for people who have already seen Sixth Sense, The Other is not quite as suspenseful because they are already conditioned to think that one of the twins may be dead. Having seen it several times when it first came out, I enjoyed watching it again and think they did an excellent job. I will probably watch this yearly.
shareThis picture is for the more mature viewer. Those who can take the time to watch, think, analize, understand and enjoy. Those young & old who want to find the prize in the bottom of the cereal box the moment the box is opened will surely agree with this daytripper.
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I admit this movie was slow, but it got better later on. I was pretty surprised later on in the moive.
R.I.P. Uncle Steve
I think the most frightening thing about this excellent movie is that it doesn't scare today's bored ,jaded overexposed to gore young people ;even children of some commentators. I assume young because they sound immature. It's scary that a whole generation is so callous toward even explicit violence like the kids I've seen yawn at real gory things on occasion. Pschological horror only puts them to sleep.No, I'm not someone's grandma ,just old enough to not be dead to some feeling of what is disturbing. What used to scare us as kids often changes, but it's sad that kids are so very inured to even the gore.
shareThey don't have to be very young to be immature and think thrillers are "boring" they could be and are 25 years old and younger, maybe some older then that. They are the 90s kids who think scary is Friday the 13th horror movies. Now The Shining scared me to death and still does but to the bored to tears group it is probably boring! (*yawn*)
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wtched this movie when i was 9 y.o and I loved it i ve been watchin horror movies throughout my childhood and thinks this one of my favs, the atmosphere setting ,the twins acting , the whistling the end..everything
and same as you cant share opinions bout this film with many ppl cause they havent seen it..
You have the IQ and attention span of a chipmunk. Stick to Saturday morning cartoons.
shareWell... if the primary requirement of a film is to keep you from falling asleep at 3AM, I can understand your disappointment, coffee might get the job done more effectively. If you can entertain the idea that a film can have other potential merits, then The Other has a lot to offer. By your own admission, you slept through parts of it, and then complain that the film consisted of a bunch of 'random' scenes. Sheeesh!
By the way, dcm5, I AM a chipmunk and I found your comment very insulting.
I just watched this movie again on AMC and I love it. My brother and I describe this film as being deeply disturbing on many levels and it is. It is a psychological thriller and all the more scary because it could really happen. I think that's the attraction for me, like Psycho. It makes me wonder how the human mind can go horribly wrong. It's the same reason that I don't like the blood and gore genre so popular today, all gore and no substance. Even today I still catch things I missed from previous viewing. For instance I wonder if the twins fooled everyone after one was killed; who really died, Niles or Holland? Who was bad; Niles, Holland, both?
shareHolland.
shareYou should watch the whole thing instead of watching the first 20 minutes and then going to sleep. Don't you think that would be a good idea?
shareI saw this film as a kid, and read the book as a teenager. It is one of my favorites. For me, this film, "The Innocents" (which was the title of the 1962 film version of The Turn of The Screw), and "Rosemary's Baby," are three of the finest horror & psychological thrillers ever made.
The Other relies heavily on atmosphere, foreshadowing and nuance. It is an intelligent film, as was the book, and requires some patience and an analytical mind to appreciate it.
It is a highly character-driven story, and even with the twist toward the halfway point in the story, it does not lose its power and impact. The twist is only a small part of the film, although it is the turning point. The corruption of Niles and his mental deterioration are more important than the twist in the film. By the time the twist occurs in the movie, the viewer's stomach is in knots. The twist is satisfying, and yet the events after it are still very disturbing.
I try to catch this film whenever it's on TV. Unfortunately, it's always on late at night and I end up dozing off. I plan to buy a copy of the DVD, along with The Innocents and Rosemary's Baby. I think it will round out my collection of 60's and 70's horror movies very nicely. Time to reread the book, too.
Just a two line comment !!!!
Sometimes you actually have to THINK about a movie and interpret it.
That's what makes a good story.
So... people are logging onto their computers to diss a 35 year old film that's still keeping people from sleeping because it's...?
Interestingly, I couldn't tell you much about the 'plot' of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, (bloody, incoherent and totally forgettable) but I can tell you almost word for word what happens in The Other and have a different take on it each time.
Which one has a longer shelf life?
Time will tell.
"That's a much better question.."
Wasn't the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, about kids? A group of kids lost in the woods and their van broke down or something, and this psycho was running around with a chainsaw going insane?
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Nope it is not boring. Not all movies have to be a serial killer constantly cutting off peoples' heads. I respect all time cinema with classics like this. You have to use your thought process more because it is not all blood and gore and sex.
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I love psychological horror themes and slow paced movies ("Don't Look Now", among others), but this one doesen't cut it. If it wasn't that I heard there was gonna be some sort of surprise ending I would have turned it off one hour into the movie, because I was getting really tired and it was all like a tv-movie of the week.
shareMost people don't have the patience (or the intelligence) for this one. It's not very in your face and doesn't bother to pander to anyone not paying attention - which is most audiences nowadays. The violence is implied (except for the baby), there's hardly any blood, and even the music score is so placid, you'd never know it was a horror movie.
Robert Mulligan and Uta Hagen? TV movies of the week should be so lucky.
"That's a much better question.."
Don't know about the violence factor, DG. I shake my metal pencil box around to see if someone has seen the film. Their reaction pretty much tells the tale.
The placid, pretty, rural feel of the film makes the horror even more intense, and the open, innocent look of the boys masks their true nature even more.
Although I've seen many (and I mean MANY) horror films: gratuitously bloody, chaste, bad, frightening or psychological, this one is the film that remains stuck in my head as being one of the most disturbingly possible - horror right out in the open.
"Holland! Where's the baby?"
Yes,
Plus, remember, the zoomed photography and the one-at-a-time child in a frame were both done deliberately. I've read some criticism on both points, but in my interpretation, Rober Mulligan wanted it close up to demonstrate Niles' view, his world, if you will. The child sees the trees, not the forest through the trees. In addition, as those of us who have seen the film know, the twins weren't shown in the same frame for a reason.
I compare it to a hot tub: most modern thrillers want to turn up the heat immediately and fizzle out; The Other starts out warm and gradually heats up so, by the time we realize it, the water is scalding hot.
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Yes, Bosnian, DON'T LOOK NOW is a good example of psychological horror and suspense from the early seventies; THE OTHER is not! Nicolas Roeg fills DON'T LOOK NOW with open ends that allow us to interpret the story in various ways. THE OTHER has it all on the surface, with a story that gets no deeper than its somewhat-cliche plot synopsis.
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