Chad McLarnon's debut feature, The Other People, feels like a corrective to the more sensational output at this year's FrightFest. Rather than thrills and gore, McLarnon focuses on the human drama at the core of the story, in a way that recalls former festival standouts like The Babadook and Pan's Labyrinth. Like those films, The Other People works because the horror is almost secondary to the character work. It's a discomfiting, slow-burning, somewhat old-fashioned horror that delivers unsettling scares while grounding them in a refreshingly straightforward family dynamic. At the same time, it manages to perform an Inception–style heist on the audience, instilling a brand new fear to sit alongside all the old familiar ones.
William Marsh (Bruce Johnson), a widowed professor, has recently moved with his nine-year-old daughter, Abbie (Valentina Lucido), into their new home. While settling in, they meet dance teacher Rachel (Lyndie Greenwood), and within a year, William and Rachel are a couple, living together under one roof. It's not long before trouble emerges in paradise, though. Abbie has made an imaginary friend named Eric and a growing fear of “the scary man,” leading her to crawl into her parents' bed at night. What begins as a seemingly conventional poltergeist tale gradually transforms into something stranger, darker, and far more disturbing.
What makes it all work so well isn't the dawning realisation that there really is an Eric, or even the implication that Eric might be a ghost, both of which are decent if conventional horror movie tropes. What makes The Other People so chilling is the possibility that nothing supernatural is happening at all – that Eric and “The Scary Man” are as real as anyone else in the film.
Where this film really shines is in its character work and the natural, grounded performances. Greenwood is especially strong, giving a deeply humane, likeable performance, making her character relatable. She has a natural chemistry with Lucido, who is both adorable and poignant, and the two are effortlessly convincing together. Johnson is solid, though William is a pretty terrible dad. He consistently ignores his daughter's warnings and dismisses her imaginary friend as a passing phase. Rachel, by contrast, takes Abbie's concerns seriously, and we end up a lot more emotionally invested in their bond than the father/daughter relationship supposedly at the film's core.
The pacing is deliberate, almost languorous, until it's shattered by a sequence that ranks among the most upsetting moments I've seen at Frightfest. It's a dispassionate, ruthlessly efficient murder scene, executed in complete silence. It's not gory or gratuitous, but the utter heartlessness of it is so at odds with the gently sinister vibe of the film up to that point that it threatens to derail the entire film. What makes it unbearable isn't the act itself, but the cold, clinical aftermath, and the crushing sense that no justice will be meted out.
There are issues beyond this tonal whiplash, though. The film sometimes feels overlong, and some subplots go nowhere – an infidelity plotline, for instance, goes nowhere. Still, the production and design remain impressive, especially the depiction of the titular “other people.” They are presented as faceless, emotionless presences glimpsed only from behind, in silhouette, or in the blurred periphery of shots. It's a creepy device that keeps the viewer's eyes scanning the edges of every beautifully lit frame. The effect is much more reminiscent of the chills of good old-fashioned horror, like The Haunting or The Innocents, rather than the gore you typically find in most modern horror. The muted colour palette and sterile visuals add to the film's meditative quality, even as the tension steadily builds.
For a debut, The Other People is outstanding. Greenwood and Lucido give especially strong performances, grounding the horror in authentic emotion, and McLarnon demonstrates a rare gift for blending slow-burn unease with sudden jolts. The influences are easy to trace – there are shades of Us, Parasite, even Barbarian – but where those films are heightened, McLarnon's film is incredibly subdued. It's a quietly devastating film, but all the more chilling because of its restraint.
The Other People had its UK premiere at FrightFest on 25 August
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