9. The Others (2001)
Original: The Innocents (1961) Writer and director of The Others, Alejandro Amenabar, may well use the Sergio Leone defence and claim that his actual source of inspiration was Henry James 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw, and he may well have a point, but surely a viewing or two of the 1961 horror classic was used for, lets say research. The source novella can be interpreted in a number of ways so whilst the thematic similarities in the respective films interpretations of the book could be purely coincidental, it could also suggest that The Innocents was on Amenabars mind, consciously or otherwise. The Innocents follow the novella more directly than The Others. Directed by Jack Clayton, The Innocents, as with The Turn of the Screw, tells the story of a governess (Deborah Kerr) who is hired to look after two young children left in the hands of their wealthy bachelor of an uncle who has no interest in caring for them. The film is hugely subtle yet an immense sense of dread remains palpable. This builds as the governess psyche becomes increasingly fragile. The Innocents wasnt huge at the time but has since been championed by Scorsese amongst others and serves as a classic in the psychological horror genre. Similarly, The Others too is concerned with the psyche of its central protagonist, this time played by a chilly Nicole Kidman.
In The Others, although Amenabar has tweaked a few things here and added a plot contrivance or two there, though the central conceit and thematic similarities remain. Kidman is actually the mother of the two children who plot contrivance alert have a photosensitive condition meaning they basically have to stay in the dark, meaning the film can be dark and scary at all times. As she struggles to deal with her responsibility toward these kids and their condition she, as with Deborah Kerrs governess in The Innocents begins struggle with herself. Thematically comparable yet tonally different, The Others goes for sensationalist, though to be fair, legitimate shocks rather than a truly scary psychological undoing of ones psyche like The Innocents and James precursory novella. Whilst The Others does enough to stand on its own, without prior knowledge of its source(s), its inspirations are undoubtedly apparent.