Others, The

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Only some bumpy, arid passages in the script keep The Others out of the master class occupied by the likes of "The Sixth Sense" and, my favorite, 1961's "The Innocents."

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

An elegantly crafted entertainment, balanced between the psychological and the supernatural, that gets extra credit for not relying on computer effects.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

This is one scary movie, not because we see ghosts or monsters, but because Kidman makes us feel her fear as our own.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Though Kidman doesn't hesitate to make Grace high-strung and as tightly wound as they come, she also projects vulnerability and courage when they're called for. It's an intense, involving performance, and it dominates and energizes a film that would be lost without it.

Variety Dennis Harvey

A luxuriously old-fashioned star vehicle custom-fit to its topliner's strengths, which come across to sensational effect.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It's the atmospheric sideshow that earns the highest marks.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A spare, discomfiting score and uniformly excellent performances, and you have a quiet little masterpiece of dark and chilling beauty.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A fiendishly subtle horror movie, a goosebump-inducing exercise in suspense that uses your own imagination to scare you silly.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The most sophisticated and satisfying ghost story on film since "The Sixth Sense."

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

If you like being scared, you should have fun. Bring a date to hold hands with.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

A tantalizing spine-tingler.

Slate David Edelstein

A minor-key ghost story with major jolts.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Some moviegoers are bound to take issue with the trick, "Sixth Sense"-style ending (or cynically see it coming), but The Others is mostly spooky fun, and a strong calling card for Amenabar.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

You can't take your eyes off Ms. Kidman; she has never played a role with more focused energy.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

A classic haunted-house story enshrouded in fog and steeped in portentous atmosphere. It gives you a case of the creeps oh-so slowly, then hits you with a clever, mind-warping way of saying, "Boo!"

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The gimmicks, in the end, are too arbitrary to tie together in a memorably haunting fashion, though they do culminate in a Big Twist, a nifty one that almost -- but not quite -- makes you want to see the movie again.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

There are hints of madness in all the characters, and it gets creepier and more surreal as it goes along until it finally comes to a showstopping climax that took me completely by surprise and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The suspense is as tingly as jalapenos on the tongue.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The icy reserve that sometimes stands in the way of Kidman's expressive gifts here becomes the foundation of her most emotionally layered performance to date.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Beautiful to behold but lacking in any kind of palpable dread or suspense.

USA Today Mike Clark

Kidman gets kudos for giving the enterprise a touch of class, while the film gives the studio's library a rare pedigreed addition.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Has everything you want in a supernatural thriller except thrills.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

In drawing out his effects, Amenabar is a little too confident that style can substitute for substance. As our suspense was supposed to be building, our impatience was outstripping it.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Isn't much more than a proficient gothic mystery with a final twist that offers a satisfying little frisson before you start counting how many times it's been used before.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

The payoff matters at least as much as the setup, and this story's secret is way too easy to guess.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

This is a subdued and sometimes subtle exercise in ghostly doings, going against the horror-movie grain by relying on quietude and understatement.

San Francisco Chronicle Wesley Morris

The Others is great as a collection of acknowledgments, but a ghost story made of a bunch of ghoulish thank-yous isn't that haunting.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The big surprise is so obvious that it makes the deliberate pacing seem painfully slow, and Kidman's prissy accent and tight-lipped performance are more than a little grating.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

What Amenabar offers here is an unconvincing, pretentiously artsy pastiche of just about every hoary old gothic thriller you can think of.