The Other 9

The Others

Starring Nicole Kidman, Alakina Mann, James Bentley, Fionnula Flanagan

Grace (Kidman) is a tightly wound, easily unnerved woman who doesn't get out of the house much -- her house being a Victorian mansion on the fogbound English Channel island of Jersey. And it's driving her crazy. Her husband hasn't returned from the war, her children are apparently allergic to sunlight, the servants have gone missing, and on top of all that, there are the ghosts....

Oh, but we're giving too much away, and the last thing we'd want to do is spoil the English-language debut of gifted Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar. Not that a plot synopsis could ever do justice to an Amenábar movie, anyway. ''I need two levels in my movies, otherwise the process isn't interesting to me,'' says the 29-year-old writer-director, who also composed the film's score. ''For the audience who just goes to have fun, they are satisfied. But I also try to work at a level that can satisfy another audience looking for substance.'' In The Others, the fun stuff is the style, which relies on shadow, silence, and creeping camera movements to earn chills. The substance is rooted in Amenábar's Catholic school education and its nightmarish tales of special hells for naughty girls and boys. ''I kept thinking, This is insane,'' says Amenábar, who's now agnostic. ''I think the main questions people have in life have to do with suspense -- with not knowing.''

Like his last film, the equally strange Open Your Eyes (just remade by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky, starring Kidman's soon-to-be-ex, Tom Cruise), The Others has a trick ending that'll have you rethinking the whole thing. ''I can't help it,'' laughs Amenábar. ''I like to play with the audience.''