The Turn of the Screw

Of all the programmes in this year's Christmas TV schedule, 'A Turn of the Screw' was the one that I was looking forward to most of all. Although not explicitly advertised as a "BBC Ghost Story for Christmas" that is exactly what it was: a BBC - ghost story - at Christmas. And with top director Tim Fywell at the helm, how could it possibly go wrong? Well, it did.

Others might like to list all of the myriad small problems with this production but, for me, there were two major faults which rendered it almost unwatchable: firstly, the two child protagonists were neither enchanting nor engaging which made it impossible to sympathise, or care, about their situation. Secondly, the way that the governess either thought that she heard things, or thought that she saw things, almost every second of every scene of her time on screen meant that there was absolutely no build-up of tension or foreboding throughout the whole production. Ultimately, and disappointingly, it ended up being just a very boring and completely unsatisfying ninety minutes.

Once again the true winter chills were to be found on BBC Four this year, with a re-run of the excellent 'Crooked House' and welcome screenings from the real master ghost storyteller - the other Mr. James.

I have watched several MR James adaptations, both film and TV, and admit that I have found some difficult to follow. Thankfully at 90 minutes long no such problem here. This TV movie has good acting and the bulk of it takes place at a magnificent looking, old British country estate. With sex scenes and male violence against women it isn't really suitable for kids, what lets it down for me is that sadly it simply is not scary. Michelle Dockery plays the 20 year old governess but she was about 30 at the time, either they should've found somebody younger or up her age to say 25. I do enjoy watching classic ghost stories over the Xmas period and much as I felt this to be reasonably entertaining I won't be watching it again in Christmases to come.

I watched this film without knowing much about it in advance. I'm glad I did, otherwise I might have been influenced by the very negative reviews on this site.

I thought it well written, acted and filmed. Focussing on the ambiguity of the story - is it a film about ghosts and demonic possession or is it a film about female hysteria - made it, I think, very interesting.

I have not read Henry James's original novel so have no opinion about its adherence or not to the novel. Given that all dramatisations of novels are likely to change the original to some extent, I see no problem with that. What really matters is producing a watchable, engaging film. That is exactly what I saw here.

To the latest version of this "The Haunting of Bly Manor". I turned to this more faithful adaptation after getting bored to death half way through season 1 of said series.

Perhaps it's not fair to compare versions, although many other reviews are doing the same to yet other adaptations. How many times has this been done? I guess it did establish the now almost stereotypical Gothic story of a young governess at a rambling old estate in the English countryside.

Dockery did a much better job of conveying a young woman trying to do her best and advance herself, although the obsession with "impressing the Master" detracted a bit. Compared to THOBM this was much more crisp, concise, believable, and even scary. That it was set in the 1920 instead of the 1880s? Who cares?

Check this out when you to become bored with a bloviated version.

All the television adaptations of M. R. Jame books have been extremely poor. Nothing scary about any of them. However reading his short stories is the only way to enjoy him, and his stories are far more frightening depicted in the written word.