I was browsing through my streaming services this morning in search of a scary movie to watch when I came across THE OTHER. The poster featured a creepy-looking kid, and the movie was made in 1972, so I decided I would dig a little deeper. The first thing I saw in the credits was that it was directed by Robert Mulligan, the same guy who directed the classic TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, and that it was written by actor Tom Tryon. Now truly intrigued, I decided to go ahead and hit play, because there aren’t that many opportunities these days for me to experience a movie while knowing next to nothing about it. And good grief, I wasn’t emotionally prepared for what I was about to see.

THE OTHER takes place in the summer of 1935, with twin brothers Niles and Holland Perry (Chris and Martin Udvarnoky) spending their days playing, fishing, and swimming on their family farm. At first it seems like we’ve stumbled across one of those perfectly nostalgic movie summers, but as we meet the rest of the family, we learn that there has been a lot of tragedy in their lives. Their father has recently died and their mother Alexandra (Diana Muldaur) seems to be lost in the grip of depression, which leaves their grandmother Ada (Uta Hagen) to give the boys most of the attention that they need. She’s even taught them fun games to play that allow them to use their imaginations. While it may all look innocent enough, it soon becomes clear that something is very wrong as bad things just keep happening.

This is a movie that takes its time building a world that changes dramatically from the beginning to the end as we slowly learn more about what’s really happening. When I was a kid, during the summers my brother and I would play in the woods behind our house. We mapped them, named the creeks our own made-up names, shot at trees with our BB guns, and walked as far as we could until we’d start thinking our mom would be mad at us. If we weren’t doing that, you might find us fishing on the pond behind our house. That’s the kind of stuff that these boys are doing at the beginning of the film and that connection to a simpler time drew me in. But once the initial layer is peeled back, we begin to realize that things aren’t how they appear. With each succeeding frame, I became more and more uncomfortable, and it doesn’t let up. I won’t spoil the movie’s surprises, but it pulls no punches.

Since THE OTHER relies on creeping dread to create its horror, as opposed to gore and jump scares, the performances need to be good, and they are really strong here. This is the only film that the Udvarnoky twins would appear in, and I think they’re very effective, with “Niles” coming off as particularly sweet and innocent. With their blue eyes, there were a couple of times they even reminded me of a young Kurt Russell. The fact that so much of the story revolves around children makes the events that follow that much more disturbing.

I found Uta Hagen to be fascinating as their grandmother Ada, whose extreme love for them comes with a whole bunch of unintended consequences. I didn’t know anything about her before watching this film either. After enjoying her performance here, I read up on her legendary career on the stage where she won multiple Tony awards, as well as a special Lifetime Achievement award. Diana Muldaur doesn’t have a lot to do, but she does have a couple of strong moments as the boys’ mother where she conveys a lot of information without being able to say a word. And while I enjoyed seeing John Ritter and Victor French pop up in various roles, no one is safe from extreme emotional or physical harm in this movie, so I can’t say there was anything fun about their characters.

In some ways, I’m quite surprised that I’d never heard about THE OTHER before now. But that’s been one of the best things about being part of TSL’s Horror-Thon, as I’ve been actively seeking out these types of films. This one stirred up a lot of emotions, with some of its visuals especially disturbing. And the less you know going in, the stronger the impact the film will have. I can just about guarantee that I will never watch it again, but there’s also a very good chance I’ll never forget it either!