The Others (2001) Emotional Design Analysis

The Others (Amenábar, 2001) is a period ghost story set in post-WWII Jersey, a British dependency off the coast of Normandy, France.

It borrows extensive storytelling techniques from the period (particularly late German Expressionism) and, as the writer/director initially didn’t speak English until he was producing the movie, the focus of the film is less on the dialogue, and more on visual metaphor, emotional and evocative acting, and stylized embodiment in both sets and effect. It plays heavily with notions of traditional gender and family and the roles in which women played in critical periods in history.

At one stage of production, the lead actress (Nicole Kidman) quit from the combined emotional toll of the movie’s production and her marriage breakdown with the Lead Producer, her former husband Tom Cruise. These combined aspects express themselves in an emotional piece of storytelling of gender, family, potential insanity, ghosts, perseverance and, finally, enlightenment.

Which Emotions does the Film seek to Invoke?

Being a ghost story, The Others would generally seek to design characters suitable for experiencing emotional Horror, but this film there is also an overwhelming sense of Sadness and Grief, which almost overrides the Fear commonly associated with the genre. One method we can use to understand the emotional intent of a film is through Stephen Follow’s (2017) method of facial expression analysis. If we use this on the posters used to market this movie, we can also see the film tilting between the thriller and horror genres, and so can understand the storyteller’s emotional intent.

By combining these two expressions, we can see that how the combined genre seeks to keep the Happiness of the protagonist low, the Fear and Surprise higher, and leveling between Anger, Contempt, and Disgust.

The Others achieves this balance by playing liberally with fear and anger throughout the film, with several bursts of sadness and surprise. The writer keeps most of the contempt and disgust away from the protagonist until the end of the film, when the mystery is revealed, and the protagonist fully understands their role in the story.

An Introduction to the Household

The Others opens with flickering, hand-drawn credits illustrated in a style reminiscent of candlelight on 1940s woodcut, laying out the house and home that once was, and allowing us to understand what was once familiar and safe, and the importance of its loss.

It plays fondly over the history of the house and family who live there, giving you a sense of empathy for the people who seem surrounded by darkness. Indeed, the darkness penetrates inside this house, as its curtains must be drawn to protect several inhabitants from light. Its doors are sequentially locked, initially as a protective mechanism, but this also gives the impression of entrapment. Grace (the mother, portrayed Kidman) and the two children are introduced through these illustrations, while most other characters are introduced near the start of the first act, where we find out that we are in a story set in the year after the end of World War 2.

Grace as a Virtue & The Sympathetic Protagonist

We have “no way to get into the story if we don’t on a subconscious level become the hero of that story. And that’s what the empathy and the identification you create at the beginning is going to do.

- Hauge (2017)

In his work on emotive storytelling, Karl Inglesis (2011) discussed the importance of having engaging protagonists in other to guide us through our stories. He identifies three major areas in which we begin to care about the character — those of humanistic values, those with desirable qualities, and those who are victims.

Grace, as the lead character, is named after a traditional Virtue and, throughout the film, Kidman seeks to embody these graceful mannerisms into her movements. She seeks to be morally conservative, guiding the children through Bible lessons, acting in a nurturing (if strict) fashion, and tries to be dependable, loyal and responsible, and also offers work to those who seek it — all very strong values for the period in which the movie is set.

She is also introduced as a trapped as victim of circumstance and gender — her husband has gone away to war, her servants have curiously abandoned her, and she is in a house so large that she eagerly accepts the offer of help from three strangers. She is honest about needing help, playing briefly with the heavily gendered role of distressed mother, before moving ahead and taking charge of her role within the story.

Finally, we also see Grace displaying a tenaciousness and perseverance throughout the film, refusing to let barriers be placed in her way, and also she is looked up to as a leader — with everyone in the house obeying her even when they disagree with her (or so we are lead to think).

She is portrayed as a strong younger mother, widowed (and therefore not “immoral” by standards of the period), raising two young children despite bitter circumstance, and we immediately start to see why her story is important in questioning the gender roles of previous eras.

Archetypes as Foils

There are several other archetypes that Grace plays off, two “maidens”, one the wilful daughter, who it turns out may be more emotionally mature than her mother, and a silent maid who seems to embody traditional feminine duties and quiet compliance. A younger, sensitive, fearful, brother also serves to highlight his sister’s bravery and acts as a questioning, sceptical character, who knows something is wrong, but struggles to express it.

There is also a traditional wiser woman character, who takes on the role of the children’s protective Nanny, but who also acts as a shield for Grace from the emotional shocks of revelation that come about through the story. She collaborates with an older male character, and together they conceal aspects of the story from the protagonist, but also give the audience insight that the other characters do not possess.

The final archetype in this story is the absent father who, even when he returns home from war, does little to assist with the story. He is emotionally distant from all the other characters, and leaves abruptly, and acts more like a prop for others to play against than a character with real emotions or desires beyond depression and duty.

House as Character

In traditional ghost stories, the House itself often becomes a character of its own (Goldstein et al., 2007). The Others’ House is initially introduced as large and noble, having resisted the German attempts to shatter its peace during wartime, but we quickly realize this safety has become claustrophobic. We learn during a brief introduction that the house is as trapped and isolated as its inhabitants, surrounded as it is by iron gates and mist, cut off the modern era’s electricity, radio and so we begin to understand why Grace must leave it to brave the Fog to keep her family safe.

Seeking Virtue, & Acknowledging the Flaw

This collective entrapment of the characters grounds our empathy for Grace and later helps us to follow her emotionally when she leaves the house to enter the Fog, ignoring the warnings of the wise old servants. She is seeking the services of a priest (representing virtue, redemption and ), which helps us to engage emotionally with the protagonist’s quest — she is being protective of the children in her care, even though she would be traditionally judged for “abandoning” them, by the standards of the day.

Entering the Fog — the Emotional Journey

Upon entering the mist, Grace (Kidman) strides confidently between the tall, upright trees, ignoring the warnings of the servants (who themselves are framed against a crooked and twisted tree, implying a threat, and who actively cover up a gravestone).

The servants have warned each other about “the Fog”, and it begins to engulf her, hiding the path, and deadening any sound except her own ragged, fearful breaths. The fog forms both a backdrop and a wall in this scene, in a very similar fashion to horror films of the 1940s, such as The Wolf Man (Waggner, 1941).

These all add to the ratcheting tension when we hear a rattling like chains, and see a faint outline looms threateningly out of the fog, until resolves itself into the person she loves, the person she’s needed, her Husband who’s finally returned from the war, the clinking of his baggage being the rattling she was so wary of.

Grace loses her previous control, and she moves quickly to him clutching first her face, and then him. Her movements and speech in the scene are reminiscent of the distressed damsel found so often in traditional horror works, and she seems even to be weakened by his presence.

The husband doesn’t play to the traditional, masculine heroic saviour role in this scene, however — he’s barely able to speak and articulate his words. He is not in control, seeming barely present, almost completely lost himself (which becomes more and more apparent after this scene). Grace barely notices his absence, however, as she is too overcome with relief and hope.

These emotions are most expressed in the gasps of her breath and the relief in her voice and face. Her husband is not so relieved, and it seems possible he knows more of what is going on than she does, although he is still powerless and wounded.

After a brief exchange, where he remains disconnected, they walk back towards the house, with her almost physically supporting him.

Tension Outline

· Initial Peak — Conspiracy & Foreshadowing

· Trough — Walking Peacefully

· Rising Tension — Enclosing Mist

· Peak — Sounds In The Mist

· Release — Embrace Of The Familiar

· Twist — The Familiar Is Wounded

· Resolution — Walking Home

Breathing As Emotion And Story

Heavy breathing is often used in horror films as an audio cue indicating fear, reinforcing and grounding us within an actors’ performance, and often occurs in response to an external terror (Soderburg, 2009). In The Others, however, the trope of heavy breathing is also foreshadowing a plot twist that occurs right at the end of the film — the breathing is ragged because of an emotionally important unknown that has already happened, rather than as an indicator of a character’s emotional response to events occurring onscreen.

This use of breathy foreshadowing and emotional concealment, using common film techniques, means that the final pay-off of the plot twist of the film gains more emotional weight. It means that we realize that we should have been paying more attention to the emphasis of our non-visual senses, rather than just watching the story play out on screen, and engages us with the ending.

Deadened Sound, Deadened Colour

Throughout the scene, we note that there are very minimal background noises and musical stings, seeking to emphasize the emotional isolation and importance of each sound.

Before this scene, Grace idly commented that “it has been a week” since she has heard birdsong. During the rising tension of the scene, we become acutely aware of this absence of natural sounds in the scene, which only serves to heighten the sense of isolation and loneliness already present, and to illustrate exactly how wrong things have gotten within the emotional journey.

Similar too, the colour of this scene is grey and stark, contrasting with the often warm of the candlelight we left behind inside the house.

It is only when the husband enters the scene that we start to see to lighter colours introduced, until we finally see a slightly brighter outline around the two as they reach an emotional equilibrium.

Camerawork and associated Emotions

Within the selected sequence, we initially witness a dialogue between the two foil characters openly discussing how they are concealing the greater truth from Grace. This is shot using a wide, open shot (indicating some final transparency), which then zooms into the key object that they are concealing — a gravestone — a shocking revelation within the greater scope of the film.

This brief scene illustrates to us the importance of what Grace is doing in the next scene, walking quickly and openly down a road. The camera then tightens and whirls around her, giving us a visual sense of the isolation and disorientation that she is experiencing.

The shot then resolves and focuses onto the mysterious clinking sound and blurry, looming figure, sharpening our attention on the threat that is just outside our senses, prickling our sense of fear.

As the figure emerges, Grace’s emotions rapidly transform in a tight frame on her face, taking us on a journey between shock, hope and relief, before including her husband in the frame.

The camera then cuts back and forth between the two characters perspectives, illustrating the complex conflict and resolution that is happening between the two characters. Finally, we see them both in profile, balancing their perspectives and sharing their emotions between the two.

The closing sequence of the scene shows the couple slowly walking up the path to their home, together finally, before the camera slips down behind the iron gates which again imprison them and keep them separate from the wider world.

Conclusion

The Others is a story that isn’t afraid to explore the emotional ghosts of traditional gender roles. It does this through layers of history and metaphor, using common archetypes and older film techniques, but still manages to tell a compelling emotional story about the role of women in post-war Europe, and the horrors that they must have experienced when they lost their loved ones to the Front.

Bibliography

Amenábar, A. (2001, August 2). The Others [Horror, Mystery, Thriller]. Cruise/Wagner Productions, Sogecine, Las Producciones del Escorpión.

Follows, S. (2017, July 31). Using facial recognition to track emotions on movie posters. Stephen Follows. https://stephenfollows.com/emotions-on-movie-posters/

Goldstein, D. E., Grider, S. A., & Thomas, J. B. (2007). Haunting experiences: Ghosts in contemporary folklore. Utah State University Press.

Hauge, M., & Filmcourage. (2017, February 24). Why Story Structure Matters (and What Happens If It’s Not There) by Michael Hauge [Interview]. http://filmcourage.com/2017/02/24/story-structure-matters-happens-not-michael-hauge/

Iglesias, K. (2011). Writing for emotional impact: Advanced dramatic techniques to attract, engage, and fascinate the reader from beginning to end. WingSpan Press.

Soderburg, A. (2009). The Role of Breaths in Film Sound | Music of Sound. http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/the-role-of-breaths-in-film-sound

Waggner, G. (1941, December 12). The Wolf Man [Horror]. Universal Pictures.