Is The Others Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 5 out of 10. It's slow, quiet and candlelit, with a few well-placed jumps and a house that never opens its curtains.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
You'll look at your own curtains differently for a night.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: Safe for most teenagers, since the scares come from closed curtains and footsteps.
The Others runs 101 minutes and takes place almost entirely in one house on Jersey, where the curtains stay shut all day because the children can't be in sunlight. Grace Stewart does not enjoy being told the house has company.
The premise, briefly
In 1945, Grace Stewart keeps her two light-sensitive children inside a dark house on the island of Jersey, until new servants arrive and she starts to hear footsteps nobody can account for.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Grace, her children and the servants are all ghosts. Grace smothered the children and shot herself after her husband was lost in the war. The living family who moved into the house is who she thought was haunting her, and they leave.
The scene you're dreading
In the middle of the movie, Grace finds an old woman in Anne's communion dress, speaking in Anne's voice. She attacks her and finds out it was Anne. The veiled figure is the part to brace for.
The dog
No dog dies in The Others, and no other animal dies in it either.
It is a quiet ghost story with a few jump scares, and once you know the twist it plays as a sad story about a mother.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Three new servants and one old rule about curtains
It is 1945, and Grace Stewart lives with her children Anne and Nicholas in a remote country house on Jersey, an island the Germans occupied during the war. Both kids react badly to light, so the heavy curtains stay shut. Three people turn up looking for work: Mrs. Bertha Mills, the gardener Mr. Tuttle, and a mute maid named Lydia. They used to work in the house, and Grace hires them. Soon Anne says a boy called Victor has been visiting her, along with his parents and a blind old woman. Grace thinks Anne is making it up, until she hears footsteps and voices herself and has the house searched. In a storage room she finds an old photo album of dead people. Mrs. Mills explains that many residents left in 1891 because of a tuberculosis outbreak.
Grace sees a piano playing with nobody at it and decides the house really is haunted. This is a problem for a woman who takes her Catholic faith seriously. She runs outside to find the local priest so he can bless the house, and she asks Tuttle to check the gardens for graves. Mrs. Mills tells Tuttle to hide the gravestones under leaves. Out in the woods she bumps into her husband Charles, who she believed had died in the war, and brings him home.
An old woman in a first communion dress
This is the scene to brace for, and it comes in the middle of the movie. Grace goes to check on Anne, who is playing, and finds a very old woman wearing Anne's veiled communion dress and talking in Anne's voice. Grace panics and attacks the woman, then realizes she has actually been attacking Anne. Now you know the veiled figure is Anne. Afterward Charles tells her he has to go back to the front. She tells him the war has ended, and he leaves the following morning regardless.
Someone took down all the curtains
Grace finds that every curtain in the house has been removed, leaving Anne and Nicholas in direct sunlight. She blames the servants and fires them. That night the children find the headstones in the cemetery, and the names on them belong to the servants, so they run when the servants come toward them. Grace finds a post-mortem photograph of Mrs. Mills, Tuttle and Lydia, who all died of tuberculosis in 1891. Mrs. Mills suggests Grace try speaking with the intruders.
The ending, explained
Grace walks in on the blind old woman, a medium, running a séance for Victor's parents. They have learned from automatic writing that Grace, grieving after Charles died in the war, smothered the children with a pillow and then shot herself. Grace realizes that the ghosts in this house are her own family and the servants, and that the so-called intruders are the living people. She holds the children and admits to the murder and her own suicide. After she died, she woke up believing God had given them a second chance. Victor's family moves out. Anne and Nicholas find out that sunlight no longer hurts them. The house is put on the market, and Mrs. Mills warns the Stewarts that they will have to get used to sharing it with whoever buys it. Grace and the children say the house is theirs and they are not leaving.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is The Others scary?
The Others is a 5 out of 10 with medium dread. It has a few jump scares and one frightening scene with a veiled figure, but most of the fear is quiet and builds from a house where the curtains are never opened.
How does The Others end?
Grace learns that she and her children are the ghosts, because she smothered them and killed herself after Charles died. The living family leaves the house, and Grace and the children decide to stay.
Does the dog die in The Others?
No dog dies in The Others, and no other animal dies in it either.
Is there a post-credits scene in The Others?
No. The Others has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Who are the intruders in The Others?
The intruders are the living family: Victor, his parents, and a blind old woman who acts as their medium. Grace and her children are the ones haunting them, though Grace does not realize it until near the end.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of The Others is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You can skip all 101 minutes of The Others and still know how it ends. Install Scaredy Cat and it blurs horror before you see it.
