The Others: What Happened To The Stewart Family

The critically acclaimed 2001 supernatural horror movie The Others—which many say was inspired by Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw—centers on the strange fate of the Stewart family: Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman), who lives with her two young children, Nicholas (James Bentley) and Anne (Alakina Mann), in post-World War II Jersey. Nicholas and Anne have a rare affliction involving photosensitivity. Early in the movie, Grace hires three new servants after hers seemingly disappear.

Unusual events start occurring at Grace’s house, and she comes to suspect that her home is haunted. Viewers are led to believe that there is a ghost family occupying Grace’s house—“the others”—but the famous twist ending reveals that Grace and her children, along with their servants, are actually the ghosts.

The Others successfully deceives the audience into thinking Grace’s house is haunted. As Roger Ebert wrote: “Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric.” Anne speaks of seeing a group of people inside who say that the house is theirs. Later, Grace witnesses a piano playing itself, and begins hearing footsteps and unknown voices. After that, things start to shift toward an even stranger conclusion.

The Others: What Happened To The Stewart Family

Grace’s husband Charles, who she thought died in the war, returns to the Stewart home out of the blue. The audience comes to learn that this was just the spirit of Charles, and Grace can see him because she, along with her children and servants, is also a spirit. It turns out there were clues of this all along; it explains the children’s aversion to the light, for instance. Plus, one of the new servants, Mrs. Mills, mentions early on that she’d worked at the Stewart house before, many years ago—when she was still living. What’s more, it turns out that Anne’s constant coldness toward her mother is because she remembers what happened to them: Grace had suffocated the children to death with a pillow before committing suicide.

The group of people Anne had been seeing in the house was, indeed, a living family, who brought a medium into the home to banish the Stewart family, all of whom are ghosts. That family, “the others”, ends up fleeing the premises themselves after witnessing proof of paranormal activity. When The Others comes to an end, it’s with the Stewarts realizing they are dead, but deciding to continue occupying their Jersey home.

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