I’ll cut to the chase for the short attention span crowd: “The Other” is worth a watch despite a few flaws.
The setup: A young white couple take in a Black foster daughter who’s around ten or so. Kathelia stands out because she seems entirely mute and spends most waking moments staring out at the world with a look of terror.
Things quickly get weird. Food spoils in the house, strange pink goop gathers in the pool, and the wife, who’s experienced several miscarriages, finds herself suddenly pregnant. (And it’s a classic horror movie pregnancy, where her stomach expands in the course of days—never a good sign.)
Now, one thing horror is good at is sitting in those uncomfortable spaces. We have one such opportunity here as the concept of white couples adopting black kids is a bit of a bete noir (excuse my pun) in certain sections of modern culture. The movie even nods to this controversy when the wife, after showing Kathelia her all-Caucasian doll collection, muses to her husband, “We should get some darker dolls.”
I was afraid the movie would be so intimidated by the “hot” nature of its premise that it would be walking on glass. But, while it was careful, it made some bold choices I did not expect.
On the negative side, there were some things that didn’t make sense here. Even allowing for the possibility of mind-controlling malevolent forces at work, people made a lot of strange decisions that only served to move the plot along. The new parents almost immediately leave their adoptee unsupervised for long stretches of time. They also decide to have sex in a pool filled with weird slime.
As the movie goes on, it moves into full body horror. I’d argue the last ten minutes reveal a dark sense of humor at work that I had not detected up until then. It brings to mind a certain 1980s Frank Henenlotter film.The twist will be familiar to seasoned horror fans, but still works.The acting is capable enough, and horror queen Shawnee Smith (from the Saw films) has a role.
Despite the occasional misfire, “The Other” is probably the best horror film I’ve seen in months.
