The Turning (2020) Review
For more than 100 years, a deeply haunting tale has been passed down to terrify audiences. Next February, DreamWorks Pictures’ THE TURNING takes us to a mysterious estate in the Maine countryside, where newly appointed nanny Kate (Mackenzie Davis) is charged with the care of two disturbed orphans, Flora (Brooklynn Price) and Miles (Finn Wolfhard). Quickly though, she discovers that both the children and the house are harbouring dark secrets and things may not be as they appear.
Inspired by Henry James’ landmark novella, the haunted-house thriller is directed by renowned visualist Floria Sigismondi (THE RUNAWAYS, Hulu’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE) and stars Mackenzie Davis (TULLY, THE MARTIAN), Finn Wolfhard (IT, Netflix’s STRANGER THINGS), newcomer Brooklyn Prince (THE FLORIDA PROJECT) and Joely Richardson (RED SPARROW, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO).
Handsomely mounted and impeccably photographed THE TURNING may look great but tonally it’s nonsensical and noisy. It proves to be less of a film and more of a headache. It’s well acted but the performances are lost in a finished product that has the feeling that it’s been butchered and re-edited by the studio to the point that what’s left is just an incoherent mess of a movie.
There’s a moment early on where lead character Kate is surprised by a ghostly apparition that suddenly appears at the bedroom window. Rather than take an age to calm her nerves afterwards she instead nonchalantly walks from the room pausing briefly to give glance a cursory back at the window like nothing extraordinary at all had ever happened. I would have run screaming from the room! This gives you an idea of how flawed THE TURNING is; this is that sort of movie where that doesn’t quite add up to the sum of its parts or any sense in the process.
It’s not the first time Henry James’ 1898 novella THE TURN OF THE SCREW has been filmed, nor is the only adaptation that we will see this year as Netflix’s second season of THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE will tackle the same source material under the moniker of THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR later this year. Hopefully the latter will be an improvement on this flaccid offering which sees the story transposed to the Nineties, although quite why it has is never really made clear. If you’re going to modernise it than have it set now, there seems to be no rhyme or reason for the selecting the decade in question.
It’s perplexing to note that Steven Spielberg executive produced THE TURNING as, aside from the excellent production values and cinematography, you’d be hard pressed to believe that would have come from any studio of his. I’d recommend that anyone who fancies giving THE TURNING a view reconsider doing so and check out director Jack Clayton’s adaptation of the same source material, THE INNOCENTS (1961), instead to see how it really should be done.