At what point did you know the twist? I sort of knew it from the synopsis of the film LOL.
But it was obvious from the beginning; old house, fogs everywhere, the way they revealed the children, locking the rooms all the time, keeping the light out, etc.
But apart from, the film was very well executed and I still enjoyed it very much even though i was waiting the whole film for them to reveal the twist.
It was too obvious, imo. And it left you with nothing but fakeouts and Nicole Kidman trying to act.
It was just relying too heavily on the tricks of the trade. All the ghost stories.
When the girl was showing a drawing of the people she'd seen and pointed out she had seen the old lady 14 times, and that she was calling to her, it was pretty clear she was the classic medium and there was some sort of seance going on.
And then it draaaaaagged on, waiting to get the "shocker" reveal that you guessed over an hour ago. Why did they have to keep on piling the hint hint, nudge nudge is my question. The servants hiding the tombstones, the way they were saying she wouldn't go far away from the house, the long awaited husband "leaving", the obvious exposition of the pictured dead bodies. When Kidman gasps at the picture she finds, I thought "ok finally, she's going to see herself and the kids in the picture" but no, it was another fake out
I envy people who never saw it coming because honestly there's not much to the movie if you already know the "twist"
For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco
I knew the father was a ghost as soon as he first showed up, but for the rest I had no idea until it was revealed.
shareI did not see it coming I figured it was the servants who were dead, but watching it now I can see the clues when she wakes up screaming, the heavy breathing of the girl etc. Still a great movie It would not work today in the theater because it moves slow.
shareI didn't see it coming, either! I truly thought that Victor and his parents were the ghosts, and the servants were somehow there for a nefarious purpose. I was totally confused about the father, and what the heck was going on with him. I just figured he had some kind of shell-shock, and couldn't stand to be in the house any longer.
Re-watching now, knowing the twist, doesn't ruin the movie in the slightest.
I think the first time I watched it, I think it was when the husband was sitting on the side of the bed, and there was no reflection of him in the mirror.
Apart from that the movie just went on TOO long.
There was a reflection of him in the mirror when Grace first swung the wardrobe open, you can see him swing by in the reflection then she left it open at an angle of which you could no longer see him.
shareMy answer is going to sound really funny but I knew from the beginning. I purposely do NOT watch trailers or read anything about movies I plan to watch. I do not work in a traditional office setting and I never watch television so I'm pretty well insulated from "information" about current movies and such.
I was not "shocked" by the "The Sixth Sense" either and also figured that out within several minutes of the movie starting. However, with "The Others" the one thing that immediately stood out to me is that giant key ring the mother carried around. Keys NOW are made of very lightweight alloys but keys back then were made of whatever materials could be spared from the war efforts and were very bulky, big and clunky. Can you begin to imagine how many keys and their weight she was carrying around and going through that elaborate process of opening and closing doors and such? I think it would have driven ANY single mother (or military wife) mad in a heartbeat! So, that begs the question...why is she practicing for some kind of WWF competition carrying all that weight around on her wrist? It just stood out to me from the start.
Beyond that, I just thought about our daily lives and it just don't fit. I never lock inside doors and I don't close any doors inside the house except the one leading to the attached garage. I don't carry my keys around inside the house and while I adjust the blinds depending on the time of day, I can't imagine ANY parent would take the time to go through all those rooms and doors to adjust window treatments no matter what era they are from! Certainly, women/wives left behind by men going off to war had more than enough to do without being a bit OCD about all those matters. It even seemed MORE plausible to me that a mother with children with photosensitivity would have purchased some fabric or used some tattered pieces she could scrape together or even butcher paper or something to cover the window panes rather than deal with the possibility of a new and untrained servant opening the drapes out of habit. I can't even imagine a parent taking a chance on a new household helper making that kind of mistake that could jeopardize her children's health. It just didn't make sense for it to be there and so detailed if it didn't hold "the key" (pun intended) to the story.
- Get busy living, or get busy dying. Andy (The Shawshank Redemption)
I guessed about halfway through the movie. I had a crazy thought "What if all the people in this house are ghosts?" Then I said "Nah, that's too crazy to be true." Later I was surprised to find out I was right.
shareEarly in the film, I was rather inclined towards the highly clichéd "it was all in her head" explanation, but it was soon clear that at least some of the characters had to be ghosts. I also guessed correctly that Grace (the Nicole character) - if she was dead - had done something dreadful to her children that the three servants knew about but chose not to reveal to her.
Guessing the complete story was more difficult since the film distracted or diverted the viewer's attention in several instances. I still am not sure about the significance of the children being sensitive to sunlight. Were they really photosensitive when they were alive, and if so what was the significance? Also, what was the significance of Grace's rule in the house that one door had to be closed and locked before another was to be opened? Was that really her rule when everyone was still alive? All these did not seem to be crucial in the final revelation, and in my opinion in that sense the film was not entirely fair.
Without these distractions, it would have been clear very early that - assuming that Grace was not insane and just imagining things - all the characters had to be ghosts or otherwise there would be no way the story could hold together. They had all seen and interacted with one another. The servants appeared out of nowhere, hid the gravestones, and later talked about the mist stopping Grace from walking too far. The way she then met her husband made it fairly obvious that the latter was a ghost too.
The only thing I did NOT predict until the last scene was that Victor was not a ghost, and (especially) that all the while he was living with the rest of his family in that house but the ghosts were not able to see them. (The only exception of was Anne and even she saw only Victor). In ghost stories, it was often the reverse - living people might feel the presence (and sometimes even see) ghosts, but ghosts could see living people. However, for this film, the viewer was forced to take the ghosts' "point of view", and the film did not allow us to see any living characters until the end.
I did not know until it was revealed. This was the best ghost movie I had seen since 1963's "The Haunting". I thought the acting was first rate from all of the cast. This is a prime example of a first class movie in every aspect.
"If I don't suit chu, you kin cut mah thoat!"
[deleted]
[deleted]