A woman (Marianne Faithful) tells a ghostly tale to a group of listeners, reading from the diary of a young woman named Jenny (Patsy Kensit), who travels to a large sprawling country estate called Bly House, to take up the position of governess to two children, Flora and Miles. Over time, Jenny becomes convinced that her young charges are possessed by the ghosts of previous employees Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, who led far from respectable lives.
This version of Henry James's The Turn of The Screw is so dull and incomprehensible that it's a wonder that the people Faithful is reading to didn't get up and leave mid-story. It's not exactly gripping stuff. That said, I didn't like The Innocents, which is also based on James's novella, and I absolutely hated Michael Winner's prequel The Nightcomers, so maybe anything related to The Turn of the Screw just isn't my cup of tea.
As with The Innocents, this movie sees Jenny slowly cracking up, unable to convince housekeeper Mrs. Grose (Stéphane Audran) that there are malevolent ghosts at work in Bly House. The kids behave precociously, leaving Jenny unable to cope, and there is doubt about Jenny's mental state: are spooks really up to no good or is she cracking up under the pressure of her new position? To be honest, it's really hard to give a damn, the film being incredibly boring, despite director Rusty Lemorande chucking in a few salacious moments to try and spice things up.
Towards the end, the film devolves into a confusing mess, Lemorande letting his artistic pretensions get the better of him with a series of bizarre, surreal visuals, his two ghosts looking like zombies and growling like wild cats while Kensit tries but fails to look scared.
