(1961) ****
"I quite agree—in regard to Griffin's ghost, or whatever it was—that its appearing first to the little boy, at so tender an age, adds a particular touch. But it's not the first occurrence of its charming kind that I know to have involved a child. If the child gives the effect another turn of the screw, what do you say to TWO children—?"
"We say, of course," somebody exclaimed, "that they give two turns! Also that we want to hear about them."
This exchange is from the frame story surrounding Henry James' famous novella, "The Turn of the Screw." How great is that? The title of his story becomes a kind of boast: "I'm going to scare the bejesus out of you with this ghost story about innocent kids being visited by scary apparitions. And I'm going to twist and twist and twist." And of course we fucking want to hear about them.
So The Innocents is a well regarded 1961 adaptation of the James story, and I'm happy to note that its cult status and acclaim is well deserved. It's a beautifully shot, fantastically acted, and tightly scripted movie. It's also an ambiguous and spooky exercise in psychological horror.
The plot is about a governess who accepts a post at some remote English mansion; her job is to care for Miles and Flora, 2 creepy pre-adolescents who may or may not be possessed by the ghosts of two former mansion workers, both of whom died on the house grounds. The movie keeps tightening the screw on the governess' sanity as she tries to piece together the mystery even while dealing with growing self doubt and confusion.
I actually saw the opera version of the Turn a few years ago,which was enough to convince me that I'm not a fan of opera. I also love The Others, another movie based (much more loosely) on the James novella.
This clip captures a lot of what makes the movie so much fun:
