The Turning

I didnt hate this as much as others have here. No, it wasnt particularly scary. But I liked the actors in it and I felt they were doing their best. And knowing the book its based off of, I felt it followed the plot relatively well with some minor adjustments. I just think the book or even the Netflix miniseries did a better job with atmosphere. For me, the biggest let down of the film is that ends so abruptly. The film really needed like an additional 10 minutes just to try and tie everything up.

Kate Mandell (Mackenzie Davis) takes on the job of tutoring Flora Fairchild (Brooklynn Prince) at an English estate. She is constantly harassed by Flora's older brother Miles (Finn Wolfhard). Caretaker Mrs. Grose (Barbara Marten) tells her that Flora is haunted by the death of her parents.

This sets up a good moody horror and it has some good actors. After setting everything up, the plot basically stops moving and developing. It feels stuck in place and the story becomes a muddle. Then the movie truly stops in a confused abrupt ending. The style is like an old horror ghost story which is intriguing. If only, the story would flow better than this.

"The Innocents" (1961) is an ambiguous ghost story with the magnificent Deborah Kerr in the lead role. "The Nightcomers" (1971), with Marlon Brandon, explains the behavior of Flora and Miles in "The Innocents". Unfortunately, "The Turning" is a poor remake of "The Innocents" without any explanation of the original story. The conclusion is ridiculous (or inexistent) and never provides the ambiguity of the original film to the viewer. The performances are not bad but the screenplay is terrible and forgettable. If the viewer seeks out an explanation for the story, reads the plot and reviews of the original film to understand the plot. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Os Orfãos" ("The Orphans")

Note: On 11 December 2024, I saw this film again.

Complete waste of time. I was close to walking out but I was hoping it got better. The ending confirmed that I should have walked out.

I'm irritated I lost precious time to go see this train wreck.

Very annoyed by this movie. It had potential but every good plot idea fizzled out into nothing. There were too many cheap jump scares and way too many unanswered questions. The ending left not only me but the entire cinema audience questioning what actually happened...

Such a good location and atmosphere but I feel like there was too much going on. The acting was good but was ruined by the dull and in my opinion, non-existent story line.