SPOILER ALERT

The Others, a 2001 film starring Nicole Kidman, takes place at the end of World War II in a remote house in the Channel Islands.  The matriarch of the family Grace(Kidman) and her two children eagerly await the return of her husband Victor and their father from the battlefront.  Meanwhile, they experience a number of odd events which Grace attributes to “the others,” spirits she believes also occupy the property.

It is clear the house has been the site of some tragic or heinous event.  The moment of illumination comes when Victor’s parents conduct a seance in hopes of cleansing the structure of its past.  Only then does Grace realize she and her children are “the others,” the spirits who still dwell on the premises.  As her memory returns, she recalls killing the two children and herself in a fit of madness when she learns Victor has died in battle.  Her “others” are actually future occupants with whom she now accepts as co-habitants of her home.

THE OTHERS (2018)

If Hollywood can bring back Jamie Lee Curtis in a new version of Halloween, maybe it is also time for a remake of The Others.  Except the location is not the Channel Island.  It is the United Stated of America.  And rather than a story told by a handful of actors, this version is an epic production with a cast of millions.  However, the basic story remains the same.  The players are haunted by fears there are demons lurking around every corner who are the antithesis of their vision of America.  Immigrants, socialists, Muslims, minority voters, and a dishonest press.  Their fears are daily affirmed by the nation’s current patriarch.

As did Grace, these residents take every safeguard to protect themselves from the others.  Ban some from entering the country.  Build a wall to deter others.  Erect barriers to keep them from voting.  And ostracize the media as “enemy of the people.”  Only then, do they believe, they will be safe.

But yesterday’s attempt to harm “the others” who share their space was the “seance” which for them, like Grace, should have been that moment of illumination.  The anarchy and vigilantism they predicted materialized.  But as in the 2001 original, the others were not some imagined boogeymen.

EPILOGUE

As I watched clips from Trump’s rallies in Montana, Texas and last night in Wisconsin, my eyes were drawn not to Trump but to his avid supporters behind the stage as he enumerated “the others” who represent a threat to some imagined ideal for lack of a better term I’ll call “the good old days.”  I could not help but wonder if any of them, in their search for “these others” realize, in the words of Walt Kelly’s alter-ego Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP