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.

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.

I sat through that whole movie and I still can't tell you what happened. It's literally the most forgettable movie ever.

I really wanted to give it three stars, but going over my notes plus how the movie felt - not justified. Positives: Unfortunately, there are none. Except they mentioned Kurt Cobain which had nothing to do w/anything, and not mentioned again. Negatives: Always a sign of cheapness is an opening (twice in this case) overhead view of a car on road. Heavily dependent on the overused, stereotypical, music & sound effects to startle you. Yawn. The usual ghostly apparitions in mirrors, windows, and in background. Very uncreative, and cheap looking. The usual isolated mansion/house w/lots of rooms w/stuff, and usual dark basement. And, a maze garden. A brief scene of a creepy tree which had no bearing on anything. Supposedly scary scenes in which our future victim has portending nightmares, and of course we don't know they're just dreams. Future victim, unfortunately in this genre is female, does not respond intelligently to what's going on. Ending, and alternative ending which was worse, was one of those "viewer decides" could be anything.

"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.