The Turning
For much of its 94-minute runtime, The Turning delivers sustained creepy thrills of the variety likely to put one on high alert in its aftermath, especially returning home to a dark domicile after an evening screening.
But the latest adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw is also bookended by deflated would-be jumps and pocked with additional glaring flaws, making it as much an exercise in frustration as quality frights.
Delayed by nearly a year from its original release date, and set in 1994 for no discernible reason other than to negate the use of the internet and smartphones’ ghostbusting capabilities, the latest from director Floria Sigismondi (The Runaways) centers on Kate (Mackenzie Davis, Tully), who’s hired as the live-in private tutor of recently-orphaned second-grader Flora Fairchild (Brooklynn Prince, The Florida Project) on a sprawling family estate somewhere in the U.S.
With walking corpse of a housekeeper Mrs. Grose (British TV actress Barbara Marten) as their lone fellow lodger, teacher and pupil form a bond, albeit one tinged by the recent series of deaths and disappearances on the property that — via some well-timed scares — puts Kate on edge. Prince’s distracting “naturalistic” approach to acting and the reminder that many critics consider her a rising star, however, is equally unsettling.
The unexpected arrival of Flora’s prankster big brother Miles (Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard, mouth-breathing like he’s auditioning for the Chloë Grace Moretz biopic) from boarding school ushers in more psychological torment for Kate, nicely blurring the line between reality and fantasy as the screenwriting team of brothers Carey and Chad Haynes (both Conjuring films) keeps tensions high.
Yet as the supernatural’s presence grow more prominent, The Turning becomes increasingly inconsistent in its depiction of these forces. Practically every image of the house’s female ghost is expertly staged and timed — sights of her silently looming behind an unaware Kate’s shoulder are among the film’s best moments — but Sigismondi fails to milk the menacing male specter’s threats through edits or musical stings, rendering him surprisingly cuddly.
And then, after a What Lies Beneath-esque revelation when a resolution appears right around the corner, it all comes to an end with a sudden, baffling full-stop that totally whiffs and seems like it was found in post-production, not planned in the least.
As the credits roll and new images emerge, answers again seem within reach, though none emerge. Instead, Sigismondi leaves viewers with sights resembling leftovers from an Enya music video — and the unappealing sense of having been tricked.
Grade: C-minus. Rated PG-13. Now playing at AMC Classic, Biltmore Grande, and Carolina Cinemark
(Photo: Universal Pictures)
