The Turning

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.

It was like watching an hour and a half movie trailer. You get left wanting to know what happens...

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.

I like horror movies and thrillers, I like modern takes on period pieces and classics, and I like the cast and am a fan of the director's music videos and earlier film work (i.e. The Runaways). So I expected to enjoy this update on The Turn of the Screw. I did not enjoy it, I'm sad to report. There was too little story or suspense to hold one's attention throughout, and that's a shame.

The cast certainly did their jobs -- Finn Wolfhard is no longer the nerdy little kid, and Mackenzie Davis was convincing in her role as a driven-to-the-edge tutor -- and it was visually beautiful throughout a lot of the film. But early jump scares suck a lot of the suspense out of it all. And a distinct lack of backstory/characterization leaves way too many questions about what, exactly, there is to be afraid of in the giant, creaky house. The little girl's fears are left unexplained, at least in terms of being satisfactory; the huge personality shift in the boy is sort of waved away; and the many unexplained deaths in the history of the estate are just confusing. I kept wondering if cuts had been made to the script or in the editing room, because things didn't flow at all and it really affected the atmosphere.

The ending will drive a lot of viewers to yell at the screen. Our half-full opening night theatre did a lot of groaning and saying, "You've got to be kidding me!" as the credits suddenly began to roll. Maybe that finale would've worked better had everything leading up to it actually added up to more...but unless we get a Director's Cut we'll never know. I wish I could recommend this movie. I can't. Not scary, nonsensical, and not enough to be worth the price of admission. -HV