"The Others is a film that sets out to deceive the audience at every turn". This is a statement by one critic. I think they are a bit vague as most horror films try to deceive you at any point possible. The critic's correct in some ways. The audience don't know the full story-line. The critic doesn't go into detail about what happens in the film. He could have said the statement even if he hadn't seen the film.
The setting of the film is very crucial to the story-line. It's set in a large old house on the isle of Jersey. The house is deserted and seems to be in the middle of nowhere. The house has no electricity to add to the mystery and it has no contact from the outside world. In the opening scene, the house is surrounded by mist and fog. At one point Grace comments on how long the mist has been there. The mist doesn't seem to go through the whole film. The old deserted house isn't a strange concept for a horror film.
The characters in the film add to the effect of weariness. In the film all the characters wear black or grey all of the time. When we first meet the children they look very evil. Nicholas and Anne have very dark black eyes. None of them smile when they first meet Ms. Mills. Normally in films, children are very sweet and innocent. The opposite of what we would normally expect. The first time we see them they look sinister and evil. When Anne is telling Nicholas that she has been seeing ghosts, we assume that she is lying and just trying to scare him but as we get further into the film we find out that she is telling the truth. In horror films there is normally a young innocent woman. I think Nicole Kidman plays this part well. At the beginning of the film you expect Grace to be the heroin of the story as she tries to protect the children from the light. At the end we find out that she has actually killed the children and then committed suicide. This is quite a surprise as...