The Innocents
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Movie Reviews of The Innocents
Movie Review: Who are The Innocents?
Summary: 5 Stars
In Henry James' classic ghost story, "The Turn of the Screw", which has been aptly titled "The Innocents" for this screen version, one has to ask, who are the "innocents"? Is it the children, who are truly remarkable children; the new governess, the inexperienced Miss Giddons, daughter of a Church of England vicar, in her first work outside of her home; or maybe even Mrs. Gross, the housekeeper who stays in a state of seige from the other three?
This is the best adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw" that I have seen and I've seen several. It seems to have been written for Miss Kerr's talents which are considerable. She is a true innocent set down in a house where some unusual things have happened several months before. The children are so young and innocent. Are they being haunted by the former valet and governess, or is this all in the mind of the admirable Miss Giddons, who seems to see things no one else does...or do they?
It's all psychological...and excellent. Beautiful scenry, wonderful costumes, edgy music and black and white cinamatography make this an excellent movie...and a whacking good ghost story.
Movie Review: Haunting for what it lacks
Summary: 5 Stars
Take two brilliant child actors, an isolated and bewildered nanny, a spooky old house, and a lot of bone-chilling suspense, and you've got a winner.
So what does this movie lack? Gore, for one. You don't need blood and violence to scare people. What's frightening is what may or may not be around the corner, or upstairs keening in the old schoolroom, or what those children may or may NOT be talking about, secretly among themselves. What is going to spring on us out of nowhere? We stop breathing as we wait.
Technicolor, for another. Black and white makes for a spooky feel.
This movie also lacks an overused tool - an abundance of background music. There is mostly silence, which makes it eerier. The final scene is made more tragic and sickening by the lack of music, except for the birds twittering as the sun starts to rise, ironic in their idle cheeriness. What do we see as the light dawns? No violins tell us how to feel. We simply see the finality, the horrible mundaneness of the tragedy with unclouded ears.
Movie Review: Atmospheric And Psychological
Summary: 3 Stars
This will be a good movie for people who like nice locations (castle on estate), people dressed in fancy clothes, etc..
This lady is supposed to be a nanny taking care of two spoiled kids but every day her hair is meticulously arranged and she wears dresses that are 12 feet in diameter. When she moved in she must have needed a tractor trailer just for her wardrobe.
I will admit the two child actors are very good, especially the little boy Miles.
However the lines are recited in such a way as nobody in real life could ever talk so perfectly.
There's a lot of symbolism in this movie.
The two kids had apparently been exposed to two adults who lived in the castle before but who are both now dead. What exactly went on between the kids and the adults I don't know.
But somehow either the adults did something to the kids or their spirits are still lurking about trying to possess the kids' bodies for their own perverse desires I guess.
The nanny is sexually frustrated I guess as most nannies probably are. So they tie this in with the male spirit taking over Miles' body and he starts kissing the nanny on the lips.
Then the nanny wants to be alone with Miles so she somehow has the authority to kick everyone else out of the castle even though she's just a nanny. Then they are having tea and Miles puts out his hand to take the nanny's hand in his. But instead he gives the jello rabbit on the table a nice jiggle (see the symbolism there ?).
I don't want to ruin it for the viewer but just let me say it also brings in aspects of necrophilia.
Jeff Marzano
The Haunting
The Beast (La b?te)
Possession
Recommended further viewing:
Brides Of Blood / Beast Of Blood
Horror Hotel
IT ! (The Terror From Beyond Space)
Invasion Of The Saucer Men
Not Of This Earth (original)
Phantasm
The Blob (with Steve McQueen)
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
The Flesh Eaters
The Fly / The Return Of The Fly / The Curse Of The Fly (orig.)
The Four Skulls Of Jonathan Drake
The Hideous Sun Demon
The Hypnotic Eye
The Incredible Shrinking Man
The Indestructible Man
The Manster
The Thing (from another world)
The Thing That Couldn't Die
The Twilight Zone Collections
Movie Review: Scary, ahead of it's time.
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Innocents" stars Deborah Kerr as a governess to a wealthy Londoner's mysterious young niece and nephew in a country manor. Their uncle leaves everything in her hands and refuses to be bothered with anything. She soon sees apparitions, and suspects the spirits of the former governess and valet are haunting the mansion with the foul intent of possessing the children. The children and the maid can't see the ghosts, clearly visible to the audience through Kerr's eyes, so it's ambiguous, through much of the film, whether the spirits are real or the governess is cracking up.
At the end I wasn't 100% clear on whether the horror was real or imagined, so I read the short novel it was based on, "The Turn Of The Screw," by Henry James, and found that the movie was very faithful to the book, as book-to-film adaptations go. The book also maintains some ambiguity until the end, but the end is much clearer.
At any rate the stark appearance of ghosts is effective and seems to me, in this 1961 film, a forerunner of the technique that made several modern horror films effective, such as "The Ring." I also liked the way they never say "ghosts" or "spirits," but always refer to them as "horrors," or "abominations," or some other indirect reference like "the others." This is also consistent with the book, and the latter phrase, among other things, aroused suspicion that "The Innocents" indirectly inspired "The Others," and perhaps a few others.
Movie Review: Excellent flick!
Summary: 5 Stars
Of the 2 reviews I just read, one carefully refrained from revealing the plot, and the other (written by an idiot) plunged right in and spoiled the movie for everyone who hasn't already seen it or read the book. What a dolt! This movie did not scare me. Neither did "The Exorcist" nor "The Haunting" (the version with Julie Harris, I never saw another). But it was fascinating, interesting, a work of great imagination. The time (100 minutes) just flew by, there wasn't a slow or dull place in it. Except, though she was as interesting as everything else in this flick and very warm and believable in both capacities, a good actress, the housekeeper's part was I thought rather badly written. Her sudden conversion to total belief from total skepticism and then back again was kind of dumb. I found Miles unconvincing. And I only liked him as a character, as an actor, as a person during the confrontation. "The Turn of the Screw" (and "The Haunting of Hill House" for that matter) is one of my favorite books, and I thought this movie did it justice to a gnat's whisker.