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[Movie Analysis] In this segment I take a shot on discussing specific themes that exist in the chosen movie.

NOTE: This content contains spoilers.

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Premise

[Spoiler Free] For those who have not watched the movie, here is a brief description to get you enticed to watch it.

Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Writer: Alejandro Amenábar
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery

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The Others is about a woman and her two children living in an old, big house. Her husband is away at war. All the servants have left, leaving the three alone in the house. An elderly woman, an elderly man and a young woman comes by to fill in the vacant positions. Strange things start happening in the house soon after.

I suggest that you do not watch the trailer and just go ahead watch the movie. The trailer reveals some moments that would be more enjoyable when watching it for the first time in the movie.

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[Spoilers ahead]

What happens?

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Throughout the movie, the audience is led to believe that the house that Grace (Nicole Kidman) and her two children are living in is haunted.

At the end of the movie, we learned that Grace has killed her two children after finding out that her husband died in the war. She suffocated her children with a pillow then went on to kill herself.

Themes

The movie revolves around Grace going through stages of her grief. She lost her husband while her children lost their father.

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1. Depression: The feeling of helplessness and sadness drove Grace to commit a murder-suicide. Depression knows no boundaries, neither gender nor age.

2. Denial: Prior to the big reveal at the end, Grace and her children were in denial that they had died. They believed that they are still alive and haunted by ghosts. When in fact, it is the other way around. Her character is portrayed as a religious person and this indicates that she may have been ashamed of the horrific action she did towards her children and herself.

3. Acceptance: When Grace finally finds out what she did and what she is, she embraced her new existence.

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Takeaway

Generally, I am a positive person. I see the light at the end of the tunnel despite the darkness that I need to go through. So, my favourite part is at the end of the movie when Grace finally accepts her situation. Cycling back to the beginning of the movie, if Grace had accepted the fate of her and her children living without her husband and being able to live through it, they might still be alive.

In the face of adversity, we work around with what we have and we try to make it work. We accept who we are even if we feel there are so much that we lack of.

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You may disagree with my thoughts, so let's discuss it.