Average Rating: 8.1/10
Reviews Counted: 28
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 1
Creepily atmospheric, The Innocents is a stylishly crafted, chilling British ghost tale with Deborah Kerr at her finest.
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 1
Creepily atmospheric, The Innocents is a stylishly crafted, chilling British ghost tale with Deborah Kerr at her finest.
liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 6,290
In this lugubrious but brilliantly realized adaptation of Henry James' classic novella The Turn of the Screw, 19th century British governess Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) arrives at a bleak mansion to take care of Flora (Pamela Franklin) and Miles (Martin Stephens), the wealthy household's two children. Outwardly the children are little darlings, but the governess begins to feel that there's something unwholesome behind those beatific smiles. After several disturbing examples of the children's
Unrated, 1 hr. 40 min.
Horror, Mystery & Suspense, Classics
Henry James, John Mortimer, William Archibald, Truman Capote
Dec 25, 1961 Limited
Sep 6, 2005
All Critics (28) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (30) | Rotten (1) | DVD (12)
If the picture is journeyman James, it is also pitapatational entertainment, the most sophisticated scare show since Diabolique.
Top CriticBased on Henry James' story Turn of the Screw this catches an eerie, spine-chilling mood right at the start and never lets up on its grim, evil theme.
Too much Freud and too little thought.
Is it the finest, smartest, most visually savvy horror film ever made by a big studio?
Sends some formidable chills down the spine.
A brilliant, atmospheric supernatural thriller with a superb central performance by Deborah Kerr.
...sends shivers down the backbone, playing the vertebrae like a skeletal hand tapping on a xylophone.
Jack Clayton's genuinely sinister Victorian ghost movie is a British cinema classic.
The real triumph here is the work of cinematographer Freddie Francis. Thanks to him, even moments that could have seemed hokey have an uncanny charge.
This classy English mystery is adorned by a wonderful Deborah Kerr as the governess driven to extremes by a strange, haunted mansion and strange, haunted children,
This unresolved mystery charges the events ... with a dreadful sense of uncertainty far more thrilling than the simple supernatural chills of a typical haunted house movie -- another "turn of the screw," as James would have said.
Kerr is on top form here, enacting a role that takes perfect advantage of her respectable facade wrestling with unspeakable turbulence beneath the surface.
Stylish, intelligent and creepy. Cinematic storytelling at its finest, where word and image are perfectly married.
It's masterly in every way with a great performance from Deborah Kerr as the troubled Victorian governess, superb black-and-white widescreen photography by Freddie Francis and Georges Auric's last, truly distinguished score.
Jack Clayton's 1961 chiller lives up to the story's title, incrementally tightening the nerves through suggestive technical artistry in a way that few contemporary ghost stories manage.
An impressively creepy adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw.
It sneaks under your skin, subtly and suggestively portraying something sinister and perverse that may exist only in the protagonist's head, but that doesn't mean it can't mess with yours.
Fox brings The Innocents to DVD on a two-sided disc [that's] just short of exquisite. Its silky black-and-white image is practically flawless ... a superb presentation.
Creepy, atmospheric happenings with effective direction + Deborah Kerr.
...creates an appropriately spooky tone that builds slowly, incrementally, until it reaches a shattering conclusion.
It tackles the material in quite a corageous way for a 1960s mainstream British film. The sumptuous deep focus photography and set decoration make one fear getting lost in the mysterious shadows of its widescreen framing, with a perfectly propper Deborah Kerr making it difficult for us to second guess how this
October 25, 2011Super Reviewer
Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr), a nineteenth century British governess, is appointed to take care of two children, Flora (Pamela Franklin) and Miles (Martin Stephens). Upon arriving at the bleak mansion she meets the housekeeper (Megs Jenkins) and also Flora. Miles arrives a few days later from school. The children seem
February 10, 2011Super Reviewer
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