The Other

Just in time for Halloween, one of the movies that's been in the FXM rotation recently is The Other. It's going to be on again tomorrow, at 3:00 AM and 9:40 AM.

After what sounds like a stereotypical 1970s movie score over the opening credits (to be fair, the movie was released in 1972 and scoted by Jerry Goldsmith), we meet the twin brothers Niles and Holland Perry, played respectively by Chris and Martin Udvamoky, a pair of child actors who never made another movie. They're chasing each other in the woods near their rural Connecticut house in what seems an idyllic summer game, before getting in a little trouble with their neighbor and then with some of their extended family for playing in the barn where they're not supposed to.

Niles and Holland live with the extended family circa 1935 (we see a newspaper headline about Bruno Hauptmann, who was executed in 1936) because Dad died and their mother Alexandra (Diana Muldaur) never really got over it. Also in the house is their sister Torrie, married to Rider (a very young John Ritter) and very pregnant. Up in their shared bedroom, Niles has a ring that used to belong to his late father, one that he keeps hidden away because he's afraid if anybody else finds out, it'll be taken away from him.

Niles also plays a game with his grandma Ada (Uta Hagen), one that looks like some sort of psychic game that has Niles visualizing things, in this first case a bird flying over the area where they live. However, the bird sees another kid playing in the barn and falling onto an upturned pitchfork, impaling himself and dying in the process!

That kid's death won't be the only bad thing to happen, however. The older lady accross the way who scolded Niles at the beginning of the movie dies; worse, Mom discovers the ring. In trying to get the ring back from Mom, another accident happens in which Mom falls down the back steps, winding up wheelchair bound.

With all these bad things happening, Ada realizes it's time for her to tell Niles the truth about the "game" that he's been playing with Holland, which is that Holland died falling down a well a few months back and the "game" has been make-believe as a coping strategy for Niles to deal with his twin brother's death. Now that perhaps Niles has admitted to somebody that Holland is in fact dead, he'll stop playing the game.

Yeah, right. We're only two-thirds of the way through the movie, so we know that there are more twists and turns coming. But those I can't tell you, because I've probably given away too much of the movie.

The plot of The Others requires a fair amount of suspension of disbelief, but that's somewhat to be expected since the movie is a horror film which deals somewhat with the paranormal. As for the performances, everybody's secondary to the children, who I think come off as more than adequate. They're not at all cloying and not at all over the top either. I have a feeling that's down in part to the direction of Robert Mulligan, who had done quality work with children ten years earlier when he made To Kill a Mockingbird.

The Other is based on a best-selling novel by Tom Tryon, a name you might recognize. Tryon started out as an actor, making movies like I Married a Monster from Outer Space, but grew disillusioned with acting, turning to writing instead. The Other was one of his novels, and he also did the screenplay for it.

The Other doesn't seem to be available on DVD, which is a shame, since it's really worth watching.