The whitest family since Leave it to Beaver.

Can a movie made of clichés be good? In the case of The Others, I'd have to say the answer is yes.

I guess they're just the kind of clichés that I'm a sucker for. The Others is a good, old-fashioned haunted house movie, full of creaking doors, long shadows, foreboding staircases and all those other gothic elements that have been associated with ghost stories for so long that even little kids get the joke when it plays out in Scooby Doo cartoons. But thanks to the brooding atmosphere created by writer/director Alejandro Amenábar, the spooky touches build into a feeling of genuine dread. This isn't a horror movie packed full of jump-out-of-your-seat moments (thought there are a few). Instead it's a ghost story sprinkled with shrink-down-into-your-seat moments.

Nicole Kidman plays Grace, a mother living on an island in the English Channel with her two young children. Grace is waiting for her husband to return from World War II. She has no electricity, no telephone. What she does have are her strict religious convictions, a big old estate, a litany of complex household rules and a life that nobody would envy.

"I want to go back to the Moulin Rouge, where I got to wear bright colors and the lighting was good."

As the movie opens, Grace is hiring three new household servants. She needs a new staff, because the old batch ran away. In the middle of the night. Without so much as a word of explanation. Without even collecting their wages.

Now I wonder what would make them go and do a thing like that?

Grace's daughter, Anne, believes there are ghosts in the house, an idea that her mother dismisses as childish storytelling. But then there's a door that's open when it should be closed, or perhaps one that closes by itself. The echo of a footstep, the sound of murmuring voices where there should be none. The housekeeper, Mrs. Mills, whose kindly eyes turn colder when nobody's looking. Am I creeping you out yet?

"Eyes Wide Shut is a masterpiece, do you hear me? A masterpiece."

I suppose I shouldn't say anything more about the plot. Instead I'll tell you that Kidman portrays in Grace the stern self-control that would have allowed her and her children to survive the war on a Nazi-occupied island, tempered with the slight touch of madness that would have resulted from such an experience. It's interesting to watch Kidman as Grace is forced to confront the unbelievable things that are happening in her house; she's not equipped to understand or accept what's going on right in front of her eyes, so . . . she doesn't.

Amenábar's pacing is slow and deliberate, which may frustrate some of the more impatient members of the audience. But it worked for me and, if the gasps and nervous laughter around me in the theater were any indication, for a lot of other people as well. Even the frat boy types sitting in front of me seemed affected. The Others is that rare horror movie that manages to scare without violence, without blood, without, even, special effects. Ah, the power of storytelling.

And speaking of storytelling, check out this list of five of my favorite ghost-y movies. Maybe you'll find your next big scare among them.

Gorilla Pants rating: 3.5 out of 4 bananas