Plot
A woman who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive children becomes convinced that her family home is haunted.
Release Year: 2001
Rating: 7.7/10 (127,058 voted)
Critic's Score: 74/100
Director:
Alejandro Amenábar
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan
Storyline A woman named Grace retires with her two children to a mansion on Jersey, towards the end of the Second World War, where she's waiting for her husband to come back from battle. The children have a disease which means they cannot be touched by direct sunlight without being hurt in some way. They will live alone there with oppressive, strange and almost religious rules, until she needs to hire a group of servants for them. Their arrival will accidentally begin to break the rules with unexpected consequences.
Cast: Nicole Kidman
-
Grace Stewart
Fionnula Flanagan
-
Mrs. Bertha Mills
Christopher Eccleston
-
Charles Stewart
Alakina Mann
-
Anne Stewart
James Bentley
-
Nicholas Stewart
Eric Sykes
-
Mr. Edmund Tuttle
Elaine Cassidy
-
Lydia
Renée Asherson
-
Old Lady
Gordon Reid
-
Assistant
Keith Allen
-
Mr. Marlish
Michelle Fairley
-
Mrs. Marlish
Alexander Vince
-
Victor Marlish
Ricardo López
-
Second Assistant
Aldo Grilo
-
Gardener
Taglines:
How do you keep them out, when they've already invited themselves in?
Opening Weekend: $14,089,952
(USA)
(12 August 2001)
(1678 Screens)
Gross: $209,800,000
(Worldwide)
Technical Specs
Runtime:|
Finland:
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USA:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
The disease the children have is an actual disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum. It is very rare with roughly a thousand people in the world that have it.
Goofs:
Errors in geography:
Near the end of the movie when Anna and Nicholas are walking away from the house they are moving away from it and this is clarified by Anna's line "We're not at the end of the garden yet" but when they stand before the grave stones a few shots afterwards, the house is behind the graves. We know for earlier on when Grace has been talking to the gardener that the graves are near the end of the garden.
Quotes:
[first lines]
Grace:
Now children, are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin... This story started many thousands of years ago, and it was all over in just 7 days. All that long long time ago, none of the things we can see now, the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the animals and plants, not a single one existed. Only God existed. And so only he could have created them. And he did.
User Review
Chilling!!
Rating: 10/10
This is one of the best movies I have seen all year, and one of the top
horror stories ever told. It's creepy, simplistic, and eerie.
I was impressed by the enchanting simplicity of the plot, the lack of need
for "Hollywood" special effects, and the haunting atmosphere that loomed
over everything from beginning to end.
The first half, or even three quarters, seemed to move along a bit slowly,
but it felt necessary to build the suspense to the point where I was biting
my nails in anticipation of the inevitable.
Nicole Kidman's character, Grace... I was torn between empathy and disgust
for her at times, but she definitely succeeded at captivating me with their
lives and story. Predictable in parts, but it still leaves you guessing.
This was a quality ghost story, with an old fashioned ambiance; downright
spooky.
I was in awe of the ending, a fairly intelligent premise. It's the kind of
movie that lets you escape reality for a while by entertaining you, but at
the same time, returns you to the "real world" with your spine tingling,
wondering if there isn't some possibility of truth... Chilling.
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