- Directed by Alejandro Amenabar
- Written by Alejandro Amenabar
- Stars Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Alakina Mann
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 44 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7pKqaPtMiA
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s the story of a woman and her two little light-sensitive kids living in a huge mansion of a house that might be haunted. Then, three servants show up who add to the strangeness that gets stranger as the movie progresses. The mystery of what’s going on builds nicely to a satisfying conclusion. It’s a good one!
Spoilery Synopsis
We start in 1945 as Grace wakes up screaming. Three old people come to the door, responding to Grace’s ad for needing servants. They’re Mr. Tuttle, Mrs. Mills, and Lydia, a mute. The previous servants just sort of vanished last week with no notice. Grace explains that it’s just her and the kids, the husband is off to war.
Grace says that she has migraines, so they don’t have radio, TV, or even electricity in the house; she likes her silence. The Germans kept knocking out the power so they just learned to do without. She also mentions that it’s usually kept dark in the house. Grace has the women close all the curtains and then shows them to the children. Anne and Nicholas are the children, and they’re allergic to the sunlight.
Grace confronts Mrs. Mills. The mailman didn’t pick up her letter for servants, so why are Mills and the others here? They say it was just good timing; they used to all work here a few years ago and thought they’d just stop by and ask. When it’s time for school, Grace shows us that she’s a strict mother and teacher.
Grace hears a child crying, but it’s not one of hers. Anne says it’s “That boy, Victor. He doesn’t like this house, but he has to live here.” Grace chews out the servants about leaving the doors open.
Could there be a ghost in the house? Anne says no, “Ghosts aren’t like that. Ghosts wear white sheets and only come out at night.” Anne uses Victor as a way to tease Nicholas, who’s afraid of just about everything. Nicholas hears Anne arguing with Victor, who does have a voice. Grace and Anne argue about there being someone in her room and lying.
Grace complains that the local priest never comes by anymore. The fog outside makes her feel isolated from the rest of the world. Grace hears stomping upstairs, but she knows where everyone is, so where’s it coming from? Grace goes into a bedroom upstairs where things are stored and gets a good scare.
Now a believer, Grace gets the servants to search the house, and Anne draws a picture of the ghosts, a father, mother, boy, and old woman with smelly breath. Grace looks through old photo albums to see if those people used to live in the house, but she doesn’t really find much. She finds an album full of photos of dead people.
Mrs. Mills talks about the family that used to live here and why they all had to leave; it was tuberculosis that cleared out the whole area, so they left to avoid it. Later, Grace hears the piano being played, but no one there knows how to play. Grace and Mrs. Mills talk about believing in ghosts.
Grace decides to walk to town to talk to the priest; to get him to bless the house. She tells Mr. Tuttle to search the yard for hidden gravestones– was a family buried here? Tuttle and Mills know more than they’re saying. “When do you think we ought to bring all this out into the open?” “All in good time.” Tuttle piles more leaves over the headstones he denied knowing anything about.
Meanwhile, Grace gets lost in the heavy fog and meets Charles, her husband. He’s home! She was told he’d died in the war. They walk back to the house, where Mrs. Mills is more than a little surprised to see Charles. He’s shell-shocked or something and spends all his time in bed.
Mrs. Mills tells Anne that she’s in for some big surprises and changes are coming. The three servants talk about “convincing” Grace. Grace sees Anne as a creepy old woman and attacks her, but it really is just Anne.
Charles and Grace talk about “what happened that day.” She admits that the servants had left overnight, and she sort of went crazy. He says he can’t stay, he has to go back to the war. They argue about why he went to war in the first place.
In the morning, Charles is gone as if he’d never been there at all. All the curtains in the children’s room are suddenly gone too; no, all the curtains everywhere are gone. There’s much running around in the sunlight as the children scream.
Mrs. Mills tells Grace that daylight won’t hurt her children. She says that their sunlight allergy should be all cleared up now. The three servants are surprisingly confrontational, and Grace is angry. She grabs her shotgun and tells them all to leave. Grace searches everywhere for the missing curtains, but she can’t find them anywhere.
That evening, Anne and Nicholas sneak out to search the woods for Charles. They find three graves. It’s the three servants; inside the house, Grace finds one of those death photos of the three. The servants are ghosts!
Mrs. Mills tells Grace that they all died from tuberculosis more than fifty years ago. “We’ve been trying to make you understand about the new situation. We must all learn to live together, the living and the dead.” Mrs. Mills says the intruders are the ones who took the curtains down, and they’re inside. “Sooner or later, they’ll find you.”
Upstairs, an old woman scares the two kids. Grace goes upstairs herself to find a family sitting at the table, doing a seance. They are writing down what the children say. “What did your mother do to you?” Anne whispers to the old woman. “Is that how she killed you?”
Grace, Anne, and Nicholas scream about not being dead.
Oh. Yes. They. Are.
It’s obvious now who the ghosts have been all along. “All three ghosts have made contact. The mother and both children.” It was a murder-suicide. Grace killed both her children before commiting suicide. Terrified, the living people decide to move out of the house tomorrow morning.
Grace explains to her children what she did from her point of view. None of them had realized that they were all dead. The two kids know that now they can be in the sunlight, and they never have to leave the house again. Except– there’s a “For Sale” sign on the front gate.
Commentary
We both saw this when it came out, but other than the ending twist, I’d forgotten most of the details. On this second viewing, I knew more of what to watch for. It’s all very mysterious and strange, and the characters reflect that, but it all makes perfect sense in the end.
So Mrs. Mills, Mr. Tuttle, and Lydia are doomed to spend eternity as servants to Grace and the kids? That hardly seems fair. How did Charles get there? Can they have other dead visitors? Don’t think too hard about the logic of the story.
It’s very good, but mostly for the big surprise at the end.