Simply A Masterpiece

Powerful

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This horror movie, directed with great subtlety by Robert Mulligan, is practically guaranteed to keep the audience off center. Mulligan plays merry hell with the audience, keeping the viewer in the dark even though the film, set in the summertime, is brightly lit.Summer 1935. Twelve-year-old twins Niles (Chris Udvarnoky) Perry and his brother Holland (Martin Udvarnoky), adorable little boys with a great deal of charm (Niles especially), are doing what little boys do in the summer: running here and there, drinking from the fountain in the yard, playing this game and that, and skirting up to the edge of mischief without actually going in. At least at first. There is another character in this triangle: the twins' grandmother Ada Vedrenya (Uta Hagen, the great acting teacher from HB Studio in one of her rare film roles).Hagen is a fascinating actress. Her film career was extremely short and usually consisted of dark roles such as the Russian grandmother here. Fans will also remember her in THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL and REVERSAL OF FORTUNE. She was a prodigious talent on the New York stage; film seemed to be her way of paying the bills.Also in the family we have Alexandra Perry (Diana Muldaur), the boys' mother who is clearly haunted by something but we don't get to find out what it is until the last reel. The boys also have an adopted sister (Jenny Sullivan), who is in residence with her husband Rider (John Ritter in a VERY early film role), Aunt Vee (Norma Connolly), Uncle George (Lou Frizzell) and the twins' much- hated cousin Russell (Clarence Crow), a chubby boy who hates his cousins as much as they hate him.Trouble is, things HAPPEN to anyone the twins hate. The first one to get it is cousin Russell, skewered on a pitchfork jumping into a haymow.As the plot unravels, we discover that the peculiar events have something to do with Ada and "the game" she plays with the twins. This is the first film to deal with telekinesis: it didn't start with CARRIE but CARRIE was the apotheosis of the subject.But as in CARRIE, things get out of hand and Ada quickly loses control over what she had thought was a harmless game.The ending is a shocker with a 360 degree twist that I definitely did not see coming.Splendid acting, a great script from Tryon's novel, and the work of a director with sure hands and an eye for what scares us.That, ladies and gentlemen, is THE OTHER. Check it out!

This little rural thriller is considered an unsung minor classic in some circles, but I had some problems with it - three, to be more specific: a) either my hearing is going bad, or the sound recording was poor, or some of the actors did not enunciate well enough, but I could not understand much of the dialogue (and my DVD has no subtitles, either) - like, at least half of it, b) nothing happens for nearly an hour, c) Uta Hagen gives a supremely irritating performance, with her overdone fake Russian accent and the overuse of expressions such as "Come, child". Apart from all that, director Robert Mulligan is successful at establishing a mood, there is a startling plot twist in the middle, and if you take the film as an allegory about the difficulty of a child to cope with loss, it is effective. But it should have been half as long. **1/2 out of 4.

The debate about whether or not such a creature as the Devil exists, can be concluded easily by pointing out that the Devil is ultimately a metaphor, and while metaphors are not flesh and blood things they are symbols of a flesh and blood things- this means that while the Devil is merely a metaphor, what that metaphor symbolizes is real, you might not make the Devil's bargain with the flesh and blood Devil, but let me assure you, the Devil's bargain exists. The Other will show you the true face of the Devil, but only if you choose to see it. Why this is such a brilliant horror movie is because it starts out as an odd little ghost story with dark undertones but ends oh how it ends as something much more frightening. There are such thing as monsters, they walk on two legs, they have hands, eyes, and mouths full of teeth, and they are hungry and they are hungry. Watch this movie, and if you are clever enough, you will see a darkness far colder and blacker than anything the void has to offer.

If you want a horror film that relies on a good, suspenseful story rather than blood, violence, and outrageously loud jump scares, then this a film you cannot afford to miss. While this film isn't particularly scary, it has enough mystery and imagination that it manages to be captivating all the way through. The story is highly imaginative and thoroughly interesting. The characters were interesting and likable. I really cared about the characters and what happened to them and for me that is the key to making a good movie. If I don't care about the characters, I won't care what happens in the story, and if I don't care what happens in the story I won't care for the film. Many horror movies make the mistake of having the characters exist only to be killed in bizarre ways, but the characters in this movie were well thought out and felt like real people with real personalities. Uta Hagen, Martin Udvarnoky, and Chris Udvarnoky gave the best performances in the film. Their performances are unforgettable and they bring their own qualities to the characters that make them feel that much more authentic.Many people would likely find this film boring because they are used to horror films with grotesque looking monsters jumping out of dark corners, and madmen butchering people with large weapons. But this film isn't like those at all. It is sophisticated, intellectual, and requires the viewer to think; something so few horror films today do. It is unique and unlike any other horror film I've seen and because of that it is one of my absolute favorites.