While Peter Pan's return really swept my feet - and heart - away to a wonderful world, the highly acclaimed THE OTHERS' "shocking ending" didn't impress me much. On the way home I thought about it a lot and started believing that maybe I've read too many classic EC horror-comics (THE VAULT OF HORROR, TALES FROM THE CRYPT, THE HAUNT OF FEAR) to be impressed by such predictable ending...!? Besides, I've also read so much ghost literature (fictional & fact) that endings such as in THE OTHERS are "most common knowledge" to me.

I was just wondering, am I again alone with this kind of opinion that THE OTHERS' ending was all-too-predictable ?

Naturally, the ending wasn't bad - it fitted in the script most perfectly; the movie was truly a delight after such stupidities as THE HAUNTING and 13 GHOSTS - but anyway it sometimes bothers me that I'm capable of knowing the end result even before the movie starts... Anyone else ?

Jeron

PS- Did you get my e-mail?

Are you implying, my dear Kenneth, that once one knows the ending of any particular film, that's it? You'll never enjoy THE SIXTH SENSE again?

GRAHAM, well certainly I'm not implying that "knowing the ending will spoil ANY movie" - BUT there are some movies which are nearly marketed with a "shock ending" and I somehow wish that I would be able NOT KNOWING these "shock endings" right from the start... Anyway, THE SIXTH SENSE was nearly on the same line with my disliking of SEVEN and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - when the entire world seemed to be shocked by the "horror" and "atmosphere" of all three films, I wasn't (- I have said it before that 1) I was the one who thought how fun it would be if the corpse on the bed in SEVEN would jump at its finders; 2) It doesn't need any expertise to know already in the beginning of SEVEN what the end result will be). I expected THE SIXTH SENSE to be much more terrifying than it was - simply because so many people had told me it's truly "gripping and shocking". And then I simply adored WHAT LIES BENEATH because I didn't know anything of the movie and I hadn't seen a single trailer nor even glanced at the movie's poster which already gives half the story away... THE OTHERS managed to be truly gripping and was responsible giving me even two good JUMPS from the seat - actually for the entire back row and rest of the filled theatre too so the ending didn't actually spoil the experience, but it just made me sad thinking that am I doomed with my ability of "thinking all the possible possibilities", for example with movie endings.

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Originally posted by Graham Watt:
Ken, the ending of THE OTHERS caught me more or less by surprise. But even if I'd guessed the ending, or already knew it, I'd still have been impressed!

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I agree with that. It certainly impressed me, but I had the feeling that it was revealed too suddenly and quickly. But, as I said above, I think that's because it's not so much a horror movie than rather a drama.

Regarding 6th Sense: I first saw it on a low quality video CD and wasn't overly impressed. Then I went to see it at the theatre with my mother, already knowing the ending - and suddenly I found it excellent.

Generally, I believe the trick is thinking "inside" the movie. Try to solve the riddles, but do so from the same POV as the characters in the film.