'The Turning' Review

The Turning is the latest film adaptation of the book The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Here, the setting has been updated to the 1990’s. Kate Mandell (MacKenzie Davis) is hired to be the private tutor for a little girl named Flora (Brooklynn Prince), an orphan who lives in an old mansion with her brother, Miles (Finn Wolfhard), and their housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (Barbara Marten). Flora is still haunted by her parents’ untimely deaths, and Miles is a borderline sociopath. But it also appears that something else is going on in the house; possibly something supernatural.

The Turn of the Screw is a bonafide classic and has been adapted for the screen numerous times, most notably in the horror masterpiece The Innocents (1961). While I haven’t seen every single adaptation, I can confidently say that The Turning is one of the worst. I was truly baffled by this movie. It seemed like they made every possible poor decision, despite having plenty of good ingredients. For one, this cast is completely wasted. MacKenzie Davis is a great actress, having appeared in both an episode of “Black Mirror” and the movie Blade Runner 2049, both of which I loved. She is given nothing to work with, and try as she might, she can’t manage to make the character itself work. Flora, the young girl played by Brooklynn Prince, is actually not too bad, but she’s really not much beyond the classic “creepy little girl” archetype. The same goes for Barbara Marten as Mrs. Grose, the generic “cold, cryptic old lady” of the film. Finn Wolfhard, who has started to make a name for himself as a horror staple, is kind of awful here. Like Flora, Miles only exists to make the audience uneasy, but his character is less Grady twins and more Henry from The Good Son. He is dealt the worst hand of them all. He invokes far more groans and cringes than chills, and it’s just irritating.

This movie has a gorgeous set, and it’s filmed terribly. The lightning is attempting to be Gothic and moody, but it ends up being incomprehensible. I couldn’t even tell what was happening in several scenes, and the pedestrian editing doesn’t help. The effects also suck. Not one of the ghosts were remotely convincing, so never once did they feel like a threat. I’m not particularly easy to scare, but I can’t imagine anyone finding this film scary. Also, side note, there was literally no reason to set the film in the 90’s. It isn’t affected by it at all, other than just the music some characters listen to. It was an oddly specific and completely unnecessary choice.

I do have to talk about the ending, so I’ll try to use the vaguest terms possible to prevent spoilers. The Turning has a sort of two-pronged ending. The first half of the ending just feels predictable and derivative. It’s just another generic horror climax. And again, any potential for atmospheric chills is completely ruined by the horrid lighting and editing. The second part of the finale is even worse. It’s just a lazy cop-out. All of a sudden, it just makes a major U-turn. And then, the movie just... stops. It doesn’t wrap up or even attempt to make sense of its abrupt 180. It simply stops. This was the final nail in the coffin for me, and for a lot of other viewers.

The Turning is just plain lazy. It’s poorly scripted, terribly directed, and it squanders both its talented cast and its legendary source material. And the ending is absolutely infuriating.

SCORE: 1/5