The Turn of the Screw (1974)

Waste of time

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

THE TURN OF THE SCREW is, of course, another version of the classic ghost story written by American author Henry James. This one is produced by Dan Curtis as one of the many TV movie adaptations of classic horror literature that he turned out, and the screenplay was by sci-fi writer William F. Nolan. It's very different in tone to the classic film version of the story, THE INNOCENTS, but no less interesting. Lynn Redgrave plays the repressed nanny who becomes to believe that there's something very wrong about the children in her care. The cast do a fine job here, particularly the child actors for whom the material must have been different, and there's an appropriate atmosphere of regret and nostalgia which sees film through some of the slower moments. Redgrave does worried very well, and for once the low key nature of the production works.

THE TURN OF THE SCREW was a natural for Dan Curtis: his groundbreaking soap opera DARK SHADOWS was essentially spawned by the Henry James story; the parallels are obvious. What makes THE TURN OF THE SCREW Scary-Plus are Curtis's patented touches: the jolting glimpses of figures believed to be dead standing outside in the darkness, staring in at the governess, Jane Cubberly (Lynn Redgrave), the sight(s) punctuated by thunderclaps or the patented Robert Cobert score. It was great to see the Eternally Beautiful Kathryn Leigh Scott as the sinister apparition, "Miss Jessel." The scenes of her hovering near the pond are every bit as chilling as the same scenes in the Jack Clayton version, THE INNOCENTS. Says Jane in the narration: "She was like a great black bird of prey hovering there. A dead thing returned." And let's not forget the two kids, who manage to more than hold their own with the likes of Miss Redgrave and the other adult cast members. Says the boy, Miles (who blinds and then gleefully kills a frog): "Will evil be good and good evil?" "Death is as real as life," he adds: "Sometimes I frighten myself..." During a recital, he refers to "those of us who love the darkness." "You talk of saving me," he chides Jane: "But tell me who, dear lady, is to save YOU...?" To some (especially those whose television upbringings have left them with short attention spans), THE TURN OF THE SCREW may seem sedate, but it nonetheless drips with lingering Menace. Done in the patented Dan Curtis fashion, it's yet another of television's high points.

******Spoiler Alert ******** Actually, I think the previous reviewer misunderstood the end of the movie. Young Miles became possessed by the spirit of the older man. He was not acting as Miles any longer. He was acting as an adult. Young Miles had never been brazen enough to drink brandy in front of his governess before. That was an obvious indication that he was possessed by the spirit. Therefore the double meaning of "Turn of the Screw" is quite appropriate.This movie was never really horrifying to me. It was quite creepy and mildly amusing. It's an enjoyable evening if you like movies set in the Elizabethan period. Watching it during a thunder storm enhances the creepiness.

I was only 10 years old 1984, when i saw this movie for the first time. I bought it in a video store for about 5 dollars. I have seen it a couple of times, and now last spring again. It had still the dark horror feeling I remember. Swedish-Denna film fanns ett tag på video på ett bolag som hette Mariann Video, då under namnet Barnens hemlighet.The movie is about 120 minutes