An unusual, chilling thriller from Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar, and a pretty darned good effort too! Honestly, some people..anyway, it's his first English-speaking film, and from the suitably British feel (it stars an all-English cast, with the exception of one of our fave Aussie cousins, Nicole Kidman, for a change, and the script is well-written and fitting. Well done, old boy!
Set in an old, scaaaaaaary house, in a load of scaaaaaaary fog, on the island of Jersey, which has at last got a look in as a rather suitably scaaaaaary setting. Who needs Hollywood?! So, anyway, Grace and her kids Anne and Nicholas are living in this house (it's 1945 and Daddy's off at war kicking some Jerry butt), and for some strange reason all their servants have left in the middle of the night. So when three acceptably weird old biddies come on over to apply for the housekeeping jobs, Grace is mighty pleased. Hmm, if only she realised that she had just hired a timid, rather unnecessary mute, a kinda witchy old woman with a fake Irish accent, and this loser gardener guy who is only included, it would seem, for a bit of light relief (groan). But she didn't, so there you go. It soon becomes scaaaaaaaarily apparent that the kiddies are photosensitive so the house is constantly in scaaaaaaaary darkness, and that Mummy once 'went mad' (like, whatever), and when weird and scaaaaaary things start happening, it's clear that this is gonna turn into one frightenin' flick. Watch out for the twist at the end..brilliant stuff. A winner! Beats Harry Potter any day, anyway..
10/10
