It’s not too far into the 95 minutes of David Moreau‘s Other that it becomes eerily evident that everyone aside from lead Olga Kurylenko has their appearance intentionally hidden or distorted from view. Moreau himself stated that it was a visual additive that played into the loneliness and confinement of Kurylenko’s Alice, who spends the majority of the film within the expansive estate of her recently deceased mother – someone who, as we learn over the course of the gradually unsettling thriller, she had a complicated relationship with.
The opening of the film sees said mother (Jacqueline Ghaye) meet her grisly end, but it’s all a little mysterious and unexplained as to what happened to her, which is very much Moreau’s M.O. as a writer and director. Her death is the first of many questions that both we as the audience and Alice as a should-be grieving daughter have, but she seems quite detached from it all, entering her mother’s home with a caution that doesn’t particularly ease. It’s a home of unsettling pristine nature. Frozen in time, almost, with Alice’s childhood bedroom practically untouched, which sets off an emotional recall for her as she reminisces on both teenage rebellion and the stern hand of a mother who viscerally pushed her into the modeling world at a young age.
An advanced security system monitors her every move, yet, ironically (or intentionally) it doesn’t seem to pick up on the things going bump in the night; the shadows that shift, the voices that whisper, the figures that creep. Moreau’s script wants us to question Alice’s sanity with such actions, especially as she seems to spiral further into a psychological state – no doubt triggered by the memories that linger in the house – but there’s always just enough taking place and ominous word from reluctant visitors to make us believe that what’s happening to Alice is actually physical.
A horror film that’s more interested in detailing the toxicity of humans, with a little found footage temperament thrown in for good measure, by way of Korean horror mentality, Other revels in its confusion. And whilst Kurylenko can’t escape some of the frustrating actions of her character, or occasional over-the-top delivery (which is surely an intentional formal choice on Moreau’s part as a director), she’s committed to the cause, filling every frame as a woman coming undone.
A difficult film to detail, and also one that I dare not spoil, Other won’t be to every genre lover’s taste, but it’s undeniably interesting in how it meddles with horror tropes. Whilst it’s up to the individual as to whether or not this sticks its landing, Other can at least boast that it isn’t, well, like the others.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Other is available to stream on Shudder from October 17th, 2025.
