The Turning is a 2020 American horror film directed by Floria Sigismondi and written by Carey W. Hayes and Chad Hayes. It is a modern adaptation of the 1898 ghost story The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. The film stars Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, Brooklynn Prince, and Joely Richardson, and follows a young governess in 1994 who is hired to watch over two children after their parents’ deaths.
The film first entered development in March 2016 and was described as a passion project for Steven Spielberg, who executive produced, wanting to be involved in a horror film again. The adaptation went through two phases of production: first as Haunted with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo attached as director, then as The Turning with Sigismondi. Filming took place at Killruddery House, County Wicklow, Ireland from February through April 2018.
The Turning had its world premiere at Los Angeles Film Festival on January 23, 2020, and was theatrically released in the United States on January 24, 2020 by Universal Pictures. The film grossed $18 million worldwide and was panned by critics and audiences, notably criticizing its inconclusive ending.
Plot
Miss Jessel, the live-in tutor at the Fairchild Estate, flees the house in a panic but is attacked by a ragged man.
Sometime later, in 1994, Kate Mandell is leaving her job as a teacher to become a governess for the seven year old Flora Fairchild after Miss Jessel’s disappearance. Before leaving, she visits her mother, Darla, who lives in a mental institution because she suffers from delusions. Upon arriving at the Fairchild Estate, Kate is informed by the caretaker Mrs. Grose that Flora witnessed her parents die in a car accident outside the house’s gate and is a “special case.” Flora gives Kate a tour of the grounds and confesses that she is afraid Kate will leave her like Miss Jessel did but Kate promises not to.
That night, Kate investigates a disturbance in the East Wing, which Flora refused to show her earlier. There, she encounters Flora’s brother Miles, who is back from boarding school. The next day, Kate receives a call from the school’s principal, who informs her that Miles is expelled after having been found strangling another boy. This startles Kate, who only becomes more aggravated with him when he and Flora begin pulling pranks on her. She lashes out at Miles, but later apologizes. Miles suggests he teach her how to ride horses to make it up to her, as their former riding instructor Quint has recently died.
Kate notices strange occurrences happening at night, so she begins to keep her lights on when she goes to sleep. One day she suggests they go into town, to the dismay of both Flora and Mrs. Grose. Flora throws a fit and proceeds to run out of the car after Kate refuses to stop it. Miles warns her to leave but Kate decides to stay due to her promise to Flora.
After reconciling, the group plays tag in the house. While looking for Miles, Kate is attacked by the ghost of Miss Jessel. She finds Miss Jessel’s journal, which contains frightening entries about how Quint was obsessed with her and took pictures of her while she slept. When Kate inquires about it, Mrs. Grose tells her that Quint died a couple weeks following Miss Jessel’s departure when he fell from his horse while riding drunk. Kate continues to see Quint and Miss Jessel’s ghosts around the house, making her increasingly paranoid.
Kate receives art from her mother in the mail, and Mrs. Grose comments that she hopes Kate’s mother’s condition isn’t genetic. She is led by wet footprints and Miss Jessel’s ghost to discover Miss Jessel’s dead body in a pond on the house grounds. Kate also has a vision of Quint raping and strangling Miss Jessel and tells Mrs. Grose, who appears to have already known about it. Mrs. Grose assures her that she made sure Quint died. Quint’s ghost pushes Mrs. Grose over the stair banister, killing her. Kate takes the children and they run from the house, managing to escape in her car.
This previous sequence is then revealed to have been a vision which Kate had as she heard Mrs. Grose’s words and looked at her mother’s art. She walks in on the children talking about her and becomes convinced that she sees Quint’s ghost in the mirror, insisting that Flora saw him too despite her protests. When Kate accidentally breaks Flora’s doll, Miles smirks at her, calling her delusional. They then walk out of the room. In Kate’s imagination, she walks into her mother’s mental institution and approaches a figure that appears to be her mother; as the figure turns around, Kate screams in horror. The face of the figure is not revealed.
Cast
Mackenzie Davis as Kate Mandell
Finn Wolfhard as Miles Fairchild
Brooklynn Prince as Flora Fairchild
Joely Richardson as Darla Mandell
Barbara Marten as Mrs. Grose
Mark Huberman as Bert
Niall Greig Fulton as Peter Quint
Denna Thomsen as Miss Jessel
Kim Adis as Rose
Karen Egan as Nancy
Darlene Garr as Holly
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.