Then let this fantastic thriller begin.

Grace Stewart’s (Nicole Kidman) servants have all mysteriously disappeared, leaving her alone to look after her two young children Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas, (James Bentley) whilst waiting for her husband (Christopher Ecclestone) to come back from the Second World War. Within a couple of days three new servants appear and with it three new people who have to be told the unusual workings of Grace's vast house. Each door must be locked before another one can ever be opened, and curtains must be drawn before either child can enter a room. All this is done to prevent daylight from touching either Nicholas or Anne who are both afflicted by a rare photosensitive condition. If the light touches them, the allergic reaction induced will prove potentially fatal. As strange occurrences begin to happen in the fog-bound house, can Grace rationalise them away, retaining her strict interpretation of Catholicism and its view of the afterlife? And is Anne the type of child who would go this far just to scare her little brother?

Kidman's performance is not the only noteworthy one. Fionnula Flanagan who plays Mrs Mills, the housekeeper, manages to maintain a comfortable homeliness providing affection to the children, whilst also managing to allow something more sinister to be seen just under the surface. At times you almost think that her kindly face is going contort itself into the face of an evil looking old woman. Credit also goes to the two young stars whose performances are both excellent. The danger in using young children is that they don't have the maturity to be truly believable, which in films like Harry Potter really isn't a problem, but in a thriller could mean death to terror! In this case, they both help create the tension rather than dissolving it by overacting.

The other weakness is a fairly subjective point. Some people have slated this film because they found it too slow. Although it is true up to a point, part of this has to do with the "old-fashioned" feel of this thriller. There are no fast paced action or special effects sequences, but instead it is the detail that builds the tension, making you jump at the all-important moments. It is true that the film might have been improved if an extra ten to fifteen minutes had been shaved off, but it is also true that if you go expecting an action film you will loose out on pretty much all "The Others" has to offer.

So how did the Spaniard cope with the triple responsibilities he gave himself in this film? Well, as a writer and director, he created an imaginative concept which was well scripted enough to allow the audience to create more knots in their stomach than any CGI trickery could have produced; and as a composer, he created a score that complemented the film perfectly. There have been comparisons made between this and the other prominent writer and director M Night Shyamalan's "Sixth Sense", although there are similarities, Amenabar has created a film with a little more delicacy than Shyamalan's film. In fact, "The Others" is a film that makes me hope Amenebar is prepared to perform the triple in English again, and is yet another film that proves that Nicole Kidman is far more than ex-Mrs Cruise!