In the end the cast didn’t have any major stars in it, though John Ritter can be spotted in an early role. Tryon wanted Ingrid Bergman for the role of Ada the grandmother, and Mark Lester for the dual roles of Niles and Holland, but Bergman had a stage commitment and Lester turned his role down. Mulligan hoped to shoot the film in Connecticut where the story takes place, but it would have been too obvious that it was autumn and not summer, so it was filmed in California. He was even considered to direct until it was decided that Robert Mulligan, who had just had a hit with Summer Of 42, had the job. The Other was based on a book by Tom Tryon, and he also wrote the screenplay and co-produced. It also has a knock-out twist that certainly influenced certain later, better known horror films, but, in a good example of how the film doesn’t like to do the obvious, it does a Vertigo and gives it to us not at the end but two thirds of the way through, forcing the viewer to watch the rest of the film in a different way, and making the proceedings more psychologically disturbing.
Watching it for the first time, and I don’t know why it had taken me so long to see this minor gem, I got a little impatient waiting for the ‘big moments’, and felt a little unsatisfied as the film ended, but its quietly eerie atmosphere remained all-encompassing, and when I thought about the film for a few minutes after it finished, I came to the conclusion that it will stay with me far longer than the other horror films I’ve seen recently which take a more conventional approach. It mostly takes place in broad daylight and tends to avoid both shocks and suspense even though plenty of nasty things occur. It’s actually quite an odd sort of horror film, even compared to many other chillers which also take a subtle approach. The horror genre is full of films which play on the potential creepiness of children, and after watching The Other, I reckon I’ll think twice about going near a young boy for a few days. Their mother is a recluse in her upstairs bedroom, grieving over the recent death of the boys’ father in the apple cellar, while their grandmother Ada, a Russian emigrant, dotes on Niles, and has taught him a psychic ability to project himself outside of his body, for example in a bird, which she calls “the great game.” It’s just as well, because Niles is always covering for the bad behaviour of his brother, behaviour that soon begins to get out of hand…. It’s a seemingly idyllic summer in 1935, and identical twins Niles and Holland Perry live with their family on a Connecticut farm.
REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera, Official HCF Critic ON DUAL FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD: February 23rd, from EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT Starring: Chris Udvarnoky, Diana Muldaur, Martin Udvarnoky, Uta Hagen
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