The Other People has all the right ingredients for an effective psychological thriller—a talented cast led by Lyndie Greenwood, a creepy premise about things lurking in dark corners, and the promise of shocking twists inspired by true events.
Unfortunately, while the individual components are strong, they don’t quite come together as cohesively as they could. Despite excellent performances and genuinely unsettling moments, the film’s ambitious scope sometimes works against its story.
Rachel (Lyndie Greenwood) marries widower William (Bryce Johnson) and joins him and his 8-year-old daughter Abby (Valentina Lucido) in their new home. Abby begins talking about a mysterious boy, Eric, who lives with them. Isn’t it cute how she has an imaginary friend? Don’t encourage her, William warns. Then she sees a scary man climb out of her closet, and is so terrified she can’t sleep alone for days. Soon, food goes missing along with articles of clothing, and Rachel starts hearing and seeing things in the shadows.
Technically, this film is a stunner. The editing is tight, and the jump scares are incredibly well-constructed.
It also looks beautiful. The grim cinematography and dark color palette lend the film an appropriately somber vibe, and I love the house as a setting. The production design, especially in Abby’s room, looks amazing.
The cast delivers strong, committed performances. Greenwood (Nikita, Sleepy Hollow) carries the film as Rachel. Johnson (Terrifier 3) as William delivers some early emotional gut-punches, while young Lucido is great as Abby.
The film is strongest for me when it focuses on these characters and the disintegration of their lives together. Unable to maintain intimacy or normal sleep schedules with Abby in their room every night, the couple grows distant. Meanwhile, a colleague at work (Quinnlan Ashe) makes her interest in William clear.
I would have loved to see the story lean more into these human issues, as there is more than enough there to help sustain this thriller.
Spoiler warning—the remainder of this review will discuss plot details for The Other People.
The term for what happens in The Other People is “phrogging,” or someone living in your house in secret. The idea has been featured in several films, the titles of which I won’t mention, because those films treat that element as a twist.
The Other People never attempts to hide that’s what’s happening, but the drawback of that choice is that we know everything from the start. So we watch and wait for the story’s inevitable, violent end, which is teased from the opening frames.
The other reason the film struggles, in my view, is that it seems to establish rules it then doesn’t follow.
It’s determined pretty early on that the people in the house are corporeal. Abby is able to see and touch her young friend. They eat food, because it goes missing. They’re just regular folks who, I guess, really like canned beets.
But these people move fast—like, super-human fast, and completely silently. They seemingly fit into places where it would be impossible to hide, allowing them to vanish within a second. I started to wonder, are they actually supernatural?
There’s a cool sequence in which Rachel sees multiple versions of herself in different parts of the house. She experiences time jumps, dialogue bleeding from scene to scene. Are we in a multiverse situation, then? (I think we’re meant to take this as sleep deprivation, but it feels a bit random.)
Then we meet the family’s odd neighbor, Mrs. Elster (Ashley Crow), who lives in her RV next door. She tells Rachel about how she lost her husband and two children. I thought maybe that the other people (a man, a young woman, and Eric) were actually Mrs. Elster’s missing family.
Ultimately, the film raises even more questions and chooses not to fully explain what’s going on.
It bears mentioning that the film also seems to have a bit of an obsession with female nudity, which did feel gratuitous, and I think it’s a problem that the only Black actor in the cast ends up in a noose. You could easily write another scene that doesn’t have those undertones.
I love how The Other People started. The first act is incredibly strong. But the film leaves many mysteries unresolved, which may work for some viewers, but left me wanting more clarity about the central threat.
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