FAQ

While her husband is away fighting in World War II, Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) lives alone in a large mansion on the island of Jersey with her two light-sensitive children—Nicholas (James Bentley) and Anne (Alakina Mann). Not long after Grace hires three new servants—Mrs Bertha Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), gardener Edmund Tuttle (Eric Sykes), and mute Lydia (Elaine Cassidy)—to replace the staff that ran off, Anne begins talking with an unseen boy named Victor. That, and many other peculiarities, such as curtains opening by themselves and unexplained noises, lead Grace to conclude that their house is inhabited by intruders.

Jersey is one of the islands in the Channel Islands located in the English Channel between England and France.

Grace explains that light is like water, that it has to be contained or confined before another door is opened. Light may not be like water in the sense that it is not fluid and cannot physically fill up an entire space, but light is a form of radiation with a specific direction. When it is blocked, a shadow is created. Closing doors is therefore the best way to contain direct (sun)light. However, blocking direct light does not give protection to indirect light. When light hits a surface, it can also be reflected or diffused by that surface, depending on the characteristics of the material. So when sunlight enters a room through one door, the direct beam can be reflected by things like mirrors, smooth walls and furniture. In this way, refracted light beams can end up entering another open door on the other side of the room. Light can make a curve in that way. So the best way to prevent either direct or indirect light is to keep all doors closed at all times after passing through.

This may be part of a technique called free association (mediums call it "automatic writing"), where a person says or writes down immediately what comes to mind. In this case, the old woman seems to be in some sort of trance in which she communicates with spiritual entities; she writes down whatever enters her mind, in the hope of conveying some message or drawing that she is receiving from the spirits.