A ghost story. I like ghost stories, they are the only way to actually creep me out. The Haunting of Hill House in books, Poltergeist in movies, or also the recent “Paranormal Activiy” and that other film where the kid went missing and the mother went crazy trying to find it in the house, until she did find it and we learn what happened at the very end… damn, what’s it called?
Anyway, creepy movies are my thing. So this one works perfectly well with me: there is an eerie mother (Nicole Kidman looks creepy at the best of times, but here in costume and in a darkened Victorian manor … brrr, get a tan!). There are creepy house-keepers (three of them). There are two kids who cannot be exposed to the sun. There is a boy ghost who keeps opening the shades of the windows. And there is the feeling crawling in that something is much more wrong than just a little dead boy in the attic can be wrong. And there is a fine little twist at the end that I did not see coming and without which the film would still be very good –second watching recommended!
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230600/
Guardian Reviews: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/89593/others
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