Film Review on The Innocents

 

The Innocents (1961), directed by Jack Clayton is a black and white gothic horror film that was adapted from Henry James novel The Turn of the Screw. Deborah Karr takes on the role of the governess, Miss Giddens, who looks after two seemingly angelic children in a remote English countryside mansion. Gradually, she begins to realise that the children might be hiding a sinister side which coincides with the rise of ghost like apparitions. The Innocents is widely regarded to be one of the greatest horror films of all time but it is a horror that is implied rather than directly shown.  

Ambiguity is one of the central themes throughout, supported by the use of clever editing techniques. Fred Francis, the director of photography, actually painted on the edges of the lenses to create a vignette sensation, so that one feels as though there is something lurking constantly at the edges of the scene. It’s a film that allows the viewers to form their own interpretations which can leave some feeling frustrated. Are the ghosts real or are they only a figment of the governess imagination? The first five ghost sights are only from Miss Giddens subjected point of view, becoming a narrator that is difficult to trust. Our knowledge is restricted to only what she knows. We never hear the children speak to each other, nor do we hear Miss Grose, the house keepers’ point of view. One can leave feeling as though there was a different ending each time.

The film further invites viewers to become part of the world of the film by composing shots that are at once claustrophobic and seductive. Apart from the opening scene being in London, the main characters never really leave the grounds of Bly Manor. During the day, the shots are slightly overexposed to give them the feeling of being ‘hot’. This changes at night when Miss Giddens is walking the halls with only candle light to guide her. It appears as though the walls are ready to rise up and swallow her as the house grows ever more oppressive. When the children are seen on the top of the tower or by themselves in the gardens, it invokes a feeling of fear for them. What would happen to them, isolated as they are in such a huge and dark manor house? The polished photography makes the film seem like an entirely plausible real-life nightmare.    

The Innocents differ from other traditional films with ghosts in the sense that they do not just quickly appear and then disappear but they are constantly in the background. It is a successful psychological horror because it inspires fear through the power of imagination, it is the suggestion of something rather than the showing of it that causes the audience to feel unsettled by what they have seen. The slow descent of Miss Giddens paranoia is captured beautifully through the cinematography and for these traits it is a film that is still worth watching all these years later.