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Grade: B+

Verdict: An old-fashioned, goose-pimply movie.

Details: Starring Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Alakina Mann and James Bentley. Written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar. Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and frightening moments. One hour, 44 minutes.

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Review: "Now, children, are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin." Spoken in darkness, those are the first words we hear as Grace (Nicole Kidman) prepares to read a story to daughter Anne (Alakina Mann) and son Nicholas (James Bentley). It's a line that also hints at the old-fashioned storytelling pleasures to come from “The Others.”

It may still be August, but this new film can send shivery fingers of autumn down your spine. An elegant ghost story built on a smartly constructed script and honest scares, it's a movie you should see with as little advance information as possible.

Unfortunately, a lot of people will probably hear too much before they check it out. And, unfortunately, some critics are bound to write exactly the wrong things to spoil some of its retro-Gothic pleasures for viewers. Word of honor, I'll try not to.

Grace lives with her children in a rambling manor on the misty isle of Jersey, off the English coast. When we first meet them, they're on their own: World War II has just ended, but Grace's husband is missing in action. So are her servants, who have disappeared. Why? And why does Grace keep the windows constantly curtained? And why does she insist that only one door may be opened in a room at any time?

Actually, that last bit isn't a mystery. The children suffer from a rare disease; exposure to strong light can blister their skin and even kill them. So, on top of being without husband or household staff, Grace is under constant stress to protect her kids. That's even before the weird stuff starts to happen. (The kids' medical condition creates the ideal setup for a spooky story: We're in a house that's always dark, whether it's morning, noon or night.)

Luckily, three new servants arrive: housekeeper Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), her assistant Lydia (Elaine Cassidy) and the gardener Mr. Tuttle (Eric Sykes). Yet, coinciding with their arrival, odd things start to happen in the house. Odd things that Grace initially blames on the children's imagination.

A bit rigid, Grace at first isn't open-minded entertaining mysteries or complexity. She prefers to briskly rationalize things. For example, when her children ask where the souls of soldiers killed at war go, she explains that it depends whether they fought for “the goodies” or “the baddies.” And Anne points out an amusing inconsistency: Their mother tells them there's no such thing as ghosts, yet wants them to believe in the supernatural events in the Bible.

To tell much more of what happens would risk spoiling the fun. The movie creates the sense that something is lurking in the shadows, something you can't quite see or feel until, like a cobweb, it clings to you out of thin air. Like the original version of “The Haunting,” “The Others” gets its scares largely from mood and suggestiveness. By example, it's a how-to textbook that demonstrates how misguided a special-effects, scare-free extravaganza like the “Haunting”'s 1999 remake is. With its tone of repressed emotion and focus on a young brother and sister, the new film also owes a debt to 1961's “The Innocents.”

Spanish writer-director Alejandro Amenábar, who composed the film's score as well, is only 29. But he shows the sort of control you'd expect from a much more seasoned filmmaker. He also wrote and directed the surreal “Open Your Eyes,” being remade by Cameron Crowe as “Vanilla Sky” starring Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz.

That film, like this one, is built like a clever puzzle box; once the mysteries are resolved at the end, you'll find yourself admiring the separate pieces as well as the whole. “The Others” keeps engaging you, teasing you with its hints and clues. In retrospect, when the credits roll, all the stray bits of information and moments of peculiar behavior make complete sense.

The acting all around is strong. Flanagan blends motherliness and hints of menace, a performance that mirrors the movie's habit of keeping you off-guard. Making their acting debuts, young Mann and Bentley seem comfortable in their scenes. Then there's Kidman, who's shot like some sort of gorgeous artifact, a 1940s goddess disguised as a tweedy housewife. Her role isn't especially sympathetic; Grace often seems on the knife edge of hysteria, and the actress doesn't try to smoothe out the character's edges. The movie is a reminder that she can do a lot more than look pretty on a trapeze. For that, she ought to thank her ex-husband, Cruise, who executive-produced “The Others.”

— Steve Murray, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution