The Others

A woman alone in a fog-bound Jersey house in 1945, waiting for a husband who is not coming back, with two children who cannot be exposed to daylight.

Amenábar wrote, directed and scored it, and the control is total. Every room is lit by a lamp somebody is carrying, doors must be locked before the next is opened, and the rule about the curtains does most of the work that a monster would do elsewhere.

Nicole Kidman is doing something harder than it looks: Grace is devout, brittle and unkind to her own children, and the film needs you to stay with her anyway.

The twist survives a second viewing, which is rarer than it sounds. Watch it again and the film is playing completely fair from the first scene, including the opening line.