Horror novella writer, Henry James, wrote 20 terrifying novels in his life. Most notably “The Turn of the Screw” in 1898. It was a horrifying story filled with ghosts and undead people torturing a teacher. More than a century later, “The Turning” was released. Directed by Floria Sigismondi, “The Turning” was supposed to be a present day version of “The Turn of the Screw”, but ended in an unexpected and displeasing way.
The movie begins with a woman trying to escape a chilling mansion and a little girl watching her nanny try to leave from a window. The scene quickly changes to Kate (Macjenzie Davis) getting ready to leave for her new job as a live-in teacher for Flora (Brooklynn Prince), an orphaned girl who lives with her housekeeper and older brother. Kate was previously a kindergarten teacher and is excited to switch to teaching just one little girl.
As Kate arrives at the huge house, she quickly notices some strange things. Looking past the unsettling things, Kate introduces herself to the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (Barbara Marten) and meets the young girl that she’ll be teaching. Flora seems like an adorable, little girl, but as the plot unfolds, Kate starts noticing her darker and creepier side. Things start to set in motion when Flora’s older brother, Miles (Finn Wolfhard), returns unexpectedly from boarding school.
Throughout the next few scenes, Kate tries to correct Flora and Miles on their manners and proper etiquette, but Mrs. Grose reminds Kate that Miles and Flora are privileged and don’t have to follow the rules. From that point on, the movie progressively got more and more confusing. There were new characters introduced, the ghosts of Jessel (Denna Thomsen) and Quint (Niall Greig Fulton), who were people that previously worked for Miles and Flora’s family. Kate believes that Miles and Flora are being controlled by the undead ex workers and starts going insane. She even tries to escape with Miles and Flora before Flora starts crying and telling Kate that they would die if they tried to leave.
After continuous scenes of Kate terrified by strange things in the mansion, including Miles tormenting her, seeing undead people, and countless times of her suffering physically and mentally, the movie seems to start to wrap up. Kate receives mail from her mother which looks like black chicken scratch. The next scene includes Kate finally escaping the mansion and all of the horror with it by driving away in her car. It seems that the movie is about to come to a good, conclusive, and happy ending when it is revealed that Kate imagined it all and is still just staring at the blank inked mess that her mother sent her. She is still inside the awful house and is continuing to be tortured in many ways. The scene quickly changes, showing Kate’s mother laying inside of an empty pool inside a mental hospital, drawing Kate’s escape in black ink all over the walls, and then the movie abruptly ends.
I have to admit, I was pretty upset that the movie didn’t have an actual ending, and even more upset that there’s currently no plan for a sequel. I left the theater very confused as to what had just happened. I know I’m not the only person who feels disappointed in it’s ending, leading to “The Turning” having a 3.7/10 on IMDb and 12% Rotten Tomatoes. While the special effects and acting was amazing and I was on the edge of my seat for almost all of the movie, I still very let down that the movie had such a basic resolution and no real ending. If there was to be a sequel to “The Turning”, I would definitely go see it to understand the first one’s ending, but for now I would have to say that I didn’t enjoy the movie as much as I wanted to.