Sightlines · reception
How The Others was received
2001 · Alejandro Amenábar · The Others on Sightlines
The arc
A sleeper smash in 2001 — a $17M gothic chamber piece that quietly grossed over $200M — and it's only climbed since, now routinely cited as proof the classical, no-gore ghost story never stopped working.
What’s debated
The eternal fan debate: is its twist actually better-constructed than The Sixth Sense's, and does the film get unfairly filed as a copycat when it stands entirely on its own?
Its footprint
Its ending is a permanent fixture on every 'greatest twist' list, and the séance scene — the little girl's voice coming out of the wrong face — remains one of the most-screenshotted jump-out-of-your-skin moments in 2000s horror.
Where it stands
A Halloween-season perennial and Letterboxd favorite — the modern gothic that horror fans hand to people who claim they don't like horror.
Did you know? It became the first English-language film ever to win Best Film at Spain's Goya Awards (it won eight in total) — and it was produced by Tom Cruise's company, hitting theaters just as his divorce from star Nicole Kidman made headlines.
Named by the director
- Alfred Hitchcock — Amenábar repeatedly cited Hitchcock in press for the film, saying he wanted suspense built from atmosphere and restraint rather than gore.