The Others

In the rustic isolation of Jersey, just after World War II, Catholic mother Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) navigates the intricacies of raising two children afflicted with Xeroderma Pigmentosa - a rare condition that renders their skin vulnerable to sunlight. Her children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley), must adhere to a strict routine designed to safeguard them from accidental exposure to the sun's rays.

The arrival of three enigmatic servants at the household - the elderly nanny-servant Mrs. Bertha Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), the weathered gardener Mr. Edmund Tuttle (Eric Sykes), and the mute young girl Lydia (Elaine Cassidy) - coincides with a series of inexplicable occurrences, casting a pall of unease over the Stewart family's daily routine. Anne's vivid drawings depict four figures: Victor, an old woman, a man, and a woman, which she insists she has seen roaming the halls. The sound of piano music wafts from a locked room, only to vanish when investigated. A mysterious "book of the dead" containing 19th-century mourning portraits of recently deceased individuals is discovered by Grace, further fueling her growing unease.

As the servants' intentions become increasingly suspect, Grace's paranoia reaches a boiling point. She takes up a shotgun in a desperate bid to flush out the perceived intruders, only to come away empty-handed. Her daughter Anne's assertions about ghostly visitations initially dismissed as childish fantasy, begin to take on an eerie plausibility when Grace herself starts experiencing strange occurrences.

Convinced that malevolent forces have taken up residence in her home, Grace flees into the fog to summon the local priest for a house blessing. Meanwhile, the servants - led by the enigmatic Mrs. Mills - seem to be orchestrating their own clandestine agenda. The gardener buries a headstone under autumn leaves, and Mrs. Mills listens intently as Anne levels accusations against her mother.

As tensions mount and the boundaries between reality and the unknown begin to blur, Grace's grip on sanity starts to slip. Her desperate attempts to exorcise the darkness from her home only serve to further entangle her in a web of mystery, deception, and ancient secrets waiting to be unearthed.

As the heavy fog envelops the exterior like a shroud, Grace stumbles upon a shocking reunion with her supposedly deceased husband Charles (Christopher Eccleston), his presence a blip on the radar of reality that disrupts the fragile equilibrium of their household. However, the reunion is short-lived as Charles's distant demeanor and Mrs. Mills' hushed warnings to Mr. Tuttle ("I do not think he knows where he is") suggest that his return may be more of a psychological mirage than a tangible reality. Meanwhile, Grace becomes increasingly unhinged as she confronts an eerie doppelganger masquerading as her daughter Anne, a vision that precipitates a violent outburst and an irreversible rift between the two. As Anne distances herself from her mother's grasp, Mrs. Mills confides in Charles about the unsettling apparitions that have beset them all, but it becomes clear that Grace is not yet prepared to confront the supernatural forces converging around her. When Charles disappears once again, leaving behind a trail of devastation and unanswered questions, Anne continues to bear witness to the ghosts of their past, including Victor's entire family and the enigmatic old woman who seems to embody the very fabric of their collective trauma.

The morning brings with it a sense of chaos as the children's cries pierce the air: the curtains that once shielded them from the outside world have vanished into thin air, a development that Anne had ominously predicted. As the servants refuse to intervene, Grace is forced to take matters into her own hands, banishing them from the house and inadvertently setting in motion a series of unsettling events that will shake the very foundations of their existence. The creaking floorboards above seem to echo with an otherworldly presence, as if the walls themselves are about to give way to the torrent of secrets and lies that have been hidden beneath the surface for so long.

As night descends, Anne and Nicholas (brave souls) slip out of their house to uncover secrets hidden from them for far too long. Their quest leads them to a somber discovery: the long-forgotten graves of their family's former servants. Meanwhile, Grace stumbles upon a haunting photograph in the servants' quarters, her eyes widening in terror as she recognizes the three smiling faces staring back at her. The very same servants, now risen from the dead, begin to stalk the children, who narrowly escape into the safety of their home just as Grace emerges, shotgun at the ready, determined to hold off the unwelcome visitors.

As the night wears on, a sense of unease settles over the household. Downstairs, Grace finds herself face-to-face with the uninvited guests, their whispers weaving a macabre melody that fills her with dread. The servants' words are laced with an otherworldly calm as they speak of the need for the living and the dead to coexist.

Upstairs, Anne and Nicholas stumble upon a mysterious gathering - Victor's parents, entwined in a séance, surrounded by candles and an aura of mystique. It is here that the truth begins to unravel: the true spirits haunting their home are none other than themselves - Anne, Nicholas, and their mother, who met a tragic end under the weight of her own madness. Grace's wrath ignites, as she lashes out at the visitors with supernatural fury, ripping pages from a book into shreds that seem to move on their own accord. The visitors, oblivious to her telekinetic display, are convinced that the papers are simply tearing themselves apart, further solidifying the notion that Grace and her children are indeed the restless dead.

As the veil of deceit lifts, Grace crumbles beneath the weight of her memories. Flashbacks flood her mind: the anguish of her husband's departure, the crushing isolation, the descent into madness that culminated in a horrific act of violence. In a fit of grief-stricken remorse, she smothered her children with a pillow and then, overcome by shock, put a rifle to her forehead, only to be denied by an empty trigger. The sound of Nicholas's and Anne's laughter, however, convinced her that God had granted them a second chance at life.

As the truth dawns on Grace, she realizes that Charles, too, is deceased - though he remains blissfully unaware of his own mortality. With this revelation, the trio - bound by their shared fate - begins to forge an unbreakable bond, forever trapped in a realm where the living and the dead coexist in uneasy harmony.

As Mrs. Mills' enigmatic presence permeates the atmosphere, she delivers a poignant reminder to Grace: the unlikely trio will learn to coexist in harmony, with the possibility of even growing accustomed to the living inhabitants that occupy their domestic space. Her words are accompanied by an unexpected revelation - now that the children have transcended their mortal forms, they've lost their acute sensitivity to light. This newfound freedom allows them to bask in the warm, golden rays streaming through the windows, a sensation they'd previously been unable to fully appreciate.

As Grace and her children gaze out at the world beyond their windows, they bear witness to a poignant scene: Victor's family, once their own, is packing up the final remnants of their lives. The subtle shift in dynamics serves as a gentle reminder that the boundaries between worlds are growing increasingly blurred, and the trio must find ways to navigate this unfamiliar terrain together.