Disc Details
Special Features:	Widescreen anamorphic format. Chapter selection. Original documentary: "A Look Inside The Others>" Visual effects piece. "Xeroderma Pigmentosum":What is it? The story of a family dealing with the disease portrayed in "The Others." Featurette:An intimate look at director Alejandro Amenabar. The Others still gallery. Theatrical trailer.
Video Format:	Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) [SS-DL]
Languages:	English (Dolby Digital 5.1) French (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles:	English, Spanish.
Captions:	Yes
Casing:	2-Disc Keep Case

Picture Quality: 9/10
Beautiful cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe. Shot in very low light, "The Others" has an eerie ambiance which is perfect for a dark night at the movies. The transfer to video and then digital was carried off with great attention to detail. There are a number of process shots in this film. Many places for the digital transfer to have gone wrong. I noticed two artifacts on the disc. Except for those slight goofs, the picture is great. No pixilation. Great delineation of colors. That is quite an accomplishment considering how much of the film takes place in the dark. The blacks and grays are very distinctive during these scenes.

Sound Quality: 10/10
Top notch sound. Lots of bumps in the night to scare your timid sweetie off the couch. Nice use of the surround sound. Excellent atmospheric score by director Alejandro Amenabar.

Menu: 8/10
Nice design. Very creepy use of images from the film. Very easy to navigate.

Extra Features: 8/10
The "Inside Look" documentary is standard PR. There is nothing that sets this apart from other similar documentaries except seeing Tom Cruise talking about the film.

There is a "Video Effects Piece" that is very cool. The section runs about 20 minutes. Each segment starts out with the final composite shot from the movie. There are sub-titles which tell you how many live shots, CGI effect shots and blue screen shots were combined to make up the final shot. Suddenly the screen splits in each of the individual elements as they were filmed or created in the computer. Then all of the individual sections recombine. It is something I've never seen on a DVD before. I liked this feature very much.

The "Xeroderma Pigmentosum" documentary is very informative. The children in "The Others" suffer from a very rare disease in which their skin can not repair damage caused by sunlight. A sunburn can turn into cancer. The feature deals with an up-state New York family with a child who suffers from the disease. Their story is inspirational and tragic.

The "Intimate Look" at director Amenabar is a collection of behind the scenes shots of him directing the cast. There are no comments or asides, just a "you are there" style of documentation. Interesting.

The only thing missing was a commentary track by the talented Spanish director.

The Final Word:
If you love spooky movies and well made DVDs then consider adding "The Others" to your permanent library.

Rusty White