The Turning (2020) User Reviews (545)

Paranormal or Paranoia

[view_and_review · 4/10 · 30 January 2020]

"Woman, what is your problem?" That is the single thought that kept bouncing around in my head as I watched "The Turning." It was turning me into an angry viewer.

"The Turning" is a movie based upon the book "The Turn of the Screws" by Henry James. Per Wikipedia--the most factual content on the internet...(snicker)--"His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media." The key word is "ambiguous."

"The Turning" started off strong. The year was 1994 and Kurt Cobain had just died. We had a bright young woman named Kate Mandell (Mackenzie Davis) who had just been hired as a tutor for a young girl named Flora (Brooklynn Prince). Flora was an effervescent little girl with a cute voice and cute smile. Flora's brother Miles (Finn Wolfhard) on the other hand was something entirely different. Besides being mean, disrespectful, and rude, he was borderline psychopathic. The palatial estate Kate was to be staying at was a massive older estate like something from the antebellum east coast.

Kate had problems right away with Miles. It wasn't enough to make alarm bells go off, but enough to irritate you. What should have made the alarm bells go off was when Miles and Flora tricked Kate into believing that Flora was drowning. Kate dove into a cold pool in the middle of the night just for their cheap giggles. At that point I would have left. They can find another tutor that is OK with being the butt of very serious practical jokes. But no, Kate stayed on the property either as a plot device to give us a movie or out of some moronic sense of commitment.

If that twisted joke wasn't enough to make her run off, then the next big brouhaha should've been. Kate had already been having repeated problems with Miles and he didn't hide his disdain for her. On top of that she was seeing paranormal activity which was enough to give any sane person reason to flee. The final straw should have been when she attempted to take the two kids to town. Before she could leave the grounds Flora flipped out and screamed for Kate to stop the car. Miles' next statement was "Stop the car or I will kill you!"

That's all I needed to hear. I am outta here. Find another adult punching bag. I'm not waiting around to find out if you're serious. Yet, this is where the movie got truly aggravating. If you are a viewer like me who has little patience for people doing stupid and unnecessary things in a scary movie, then you would have been equally frustrated. Kate was not a prisoner. This wasn't her family and we knew very little backstory about her to motivate her to stay. In other words, besides a promise to a little girl, there was no reason for her to stay at the estate and take further abuse. But stay she did and claw at my own face in irritation I did.

Kate sank deeper and deeper into a state of fear and unrest and it was written all over her face. With each passing minute and each occurrence I devolved further into a state of angst as I could only silently yell, "Get a clue and get the heck out!"

Then, as the plot seemed to be finally revealing itself we got the most ambiguous ending you could possibly imagine. This wasn't like "Inception" where you're left to wonder if he was dreaming or not, or "No Country for Old Men" where you're left wondering if he killed the girlfriend or not, this was like nothing I can think of where you don't know what in the world was going on. I was totally confused. Are there ghosts, are there not, is she crazy, is she not? What just happened? We just went on this 90 minute psychedelic trip and suddenly woke up and nothing is in focus. Such a let down.

I'm Unsure of What Was Real or Imagined

[tiffanytallent1981 · 3/10 · 12 July 2022]

I gave this movie three stars for the acting, the superbly creepy children, and for a couple good scares. I couldn't think of anything to merit a fourth star.

Here's a detailed summary so you don't have to watch it. Kate becomes a governess/tutor to an orphaned girl named Flora. Unbeknownst to Kate, Flora's brother, Miles, is expelled from boarding school and returns home. So now she has two kids in her charge. The only other person in the house to help is Mrs. Grose. I take it she manages the estate and everything that entails. Plus she Mile's and Flora's guardian.

Miles and Kate immediately get off on the wrong foot. These are privileged children and Miles doesn't like to be bossed around. He is extremely creepy and hateful to Kate. At times his mannerisms and behavior seem like a sociopath. Kate is definitely scared of him.

And while dealing with that, Kate starts to hear voices at night. Then she starts seeing fleeting spirits, quick enough that she's unsure if they were real. Pretty soon though, the spirits begin to make themselves more seen and even attack her. She eventually sees that the female spirit (Jessel) is of the last governess and the male spirit is of the deceased horse manager (Quint). The movie continues with Jessel trying to show Kate different things that happened to her. And Quint keeps trying to scare and hurt Kate. Sometimes it seems he even inhabits the body of Miles to intimidate her even more.

Eventually it got to a point where I thought the ending was actually going to be good. Kate received black paintings from her mom, who was in an insane asylum. That night, Through physical visions, Kate sees Quint r*pe and kill Jessel. This is after Jessel's spirit pulls her into one of the house ponds, where Quint apparently placed her body. After seeing this, Quint also attacks Kate and then pushes Mrs. Grose over the staircase railing. Kate frantically finds the children and convinces them to leave with her. As they are exiting the property, the movie goes back to when Kate first started looking at her mom's paintings. So none of this paragraph actually happened to Kate, Mrs. Grose, or the kids. There are a few paintings though, so I thought perhaps each one would be a different ending. How cool would that have been? Four different endings. Instead, we get NO REAL ENDING.

Kate is made out to be crazy. The kids are still extra creepy, with Flora being afraid of Kate too. And I still don't know if there were any spirits. Plus, was the woman in the asylum supposed to be Kate at the end? Was EVERYTHING just a story in her own mind?

Did Kate inherit her mother's psychological disorder, which caused her to imagine things? Or was evil really in the house and it caused her to go crazy? If it was the latter, why the heck didn't she leave? The behavior of the elder brother Miles would've been enough for me to go. But Kate stuck it out to try and "reach" him. Blah. After she saw evil spirits and these entities actually attacked her, she should've fled that house. This movie left me with more questions than answers.

stops and then really stops

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 28 January 2022]

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.

Last minute change to the ending, I presume, destroyed it

[rubellan · 2/10 · 27 January 2020]

My favorite adaptation of this move is the one with Patsy Kensit from the late 80's. Very atmospheric and effective.

I found this version adequate until the end. It was so abrupt and veered into such a weird direction that it appeared to be a last minute change that fell beyond flat. The impression I got is they tried to suddenly make it about genetic mental illness rather than an actual ghost story. The last time she looks in the mirror and claims she sees the ghost, there really was nothing there. Then the layered dialog emphasizes something Mrs. Gross just stated about whatever her mother has (mental illness), hopefully she doesn't get it. The kids call her crazy, walk out of the room and the movie's over. Are you kidding?

I can't assume this was the direction they were going in the whole time. And a scene from the trailer, in which a large spider is crawling out of the boy's mouth, was not even in the movie, so that points even further towards a change in direction. But whoever decided on this direction made a very bad decision.

A slow burn that unfortunately fizzles out with a weird ending.

[prettyh-1 · 2/10 · 24 January 2020]

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

"What??"

[lesleyannemandigo · 2/10 · 25 January 2020]

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

An abrupt ending that confuses everyone

[Gordon-11 · 7 April 2020]

There are quite a few jump scares, but the plot is just really thin. There are so many unanswered questions. For example, is Finn really trying to make life hard for the governess, or is he possessed? The ending is just really abrupt, I literally gasped "What?" because I just don't know what really happened in the whole film. The two endings, which one is real? Is she crazy? It is very confusing.

No ending

[todoparami · 1/10 · 25 January 2020]

Great cast! Just hated the ending, screenwriter should have been true to the books ending. Why invest everyones time in such a let down? There was no ending that closed off or left open any theories. Audiences just walked out the theater full of disappointment. Abrupt scene change that felt totally disconnected from the rest of the movie. Allowing audiences to feel a major dissatisfaction.

Nobody has time for movies like this.

[sautdebasque · 1/10 · 28 January 2020]

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 think my theater was missing a reel?

[witchybetch · 2/10 · 26 January 2020]

At the climactic point, the screen blipped and the credits rolled up. I'm so confused. I don't think they use film reels any more, but a good 20 minutes is missing from the story. It wasn't edgy or unique. It was literally just dumb. I remember feeling this way about Schindlers List in the early 90s. Except that was because it was on two vhs tapes and I had only rented part 1.

Just watch The Others.

[jacksnackfan · 1/10 · 27 January 2020]

I sat through that whole movie and I still can't tell you what happened. It's literally the most forgettable movie ever.

I Actually Enjoyed It

[lilynsajdak · 9/10 · 15 October 2021]

The ending was very confusing (i'm sure it would make more sense if you read the book though), but i thought it was a good movie through and through. Take the reviews with a grain of salt and make up your own mind about it; i would watch it again.

Ambiguity explained, a movie worth watching!

[Deemarx · 6/10 · 10 April 2020]

The low ratings of the movie probably stem from its ambiguity. It actually illustrates how Kate descends into madness; hence the title. This is alluded to in the beginning when the eye of an older woman reliving the attack of the previous nanny is cut into the eye of Kate, portrayed by Mackenzie Davis, suggesting that they are the same person. The flashback opens with Kurt Cobain's suicide, which occurred in 1994, chronicling young Kate. The scene depicting Kate escaping with the children is imagined, and what truly occurred was the scene shown in the succeeding flashback where the children note that Kate is crazy when she asks them if they've seen ghosts. In the last scene, Kate is horrified when she realizes that it is she who is being held in the asylum, and not her mother. When paused, the figure Kate is frightened by in the pool is simply the woman portrayed by Joely Richardson, her older self in present day. This explains the drawings on the pool wall, of Kate recollecting her horrible experience at the mansion. It is an intriguing psychological, rather than a horror, movie with a twist, worth the watch.

Waste of Time

[kds-76564 · 1/10 · 26 January 2020]

Read the reviews and hoped it was better. Not! The movie had potential. The actors were all very good, but the story was convoluted and had many holes in it. So many unanswered questions!! Then it ENDS?! What a disappointment - if it had ended 5 minutes earlier, the ending would've been better. We walked out feeling as if we wasted our afternoon.

Turns a little too much but too little

[wittierland · 2/10 · 24 January 2020]

Right of the bat the movie looks promising with a beautiful location and atmosphere. This is wasted barely halfway through when cheap jump scares ensue. Ghosts in a window reflection don't get scarier throughout a films run time. Mackenzie Davis gives it her best but is wasted on a convoluted script. When you think the movie is heading into its third act and will answer all its baffling questions, the credits begin rolling. Its biggest crime is teasing creepy scenes in its promotional material and not including them. The spider on Miles' face especially.

What an absolutely terrible movie

[cobain_1979 · 1/10 · 24 January 2020]

Opens on the announcement of Kurt Cobain's death for no reason at all and never references it again. "Music" plays a theme but not 90s grunge music, for some very odd reason. Then it ends as abruptly as Monty Python and The Holy Grail. You're just sitting there wondering what just happened.

not sure what to think...

[LSUK · 2/10 · 24 January 2020]

Very annoyed by this movie. It had potential but every good plot idea fizzled out into nothing. There were too many cheap jump scares and way too many unanswered questions. The ending left not only me but the entire cinema audience questioning what actually happened...

Such a good location and atmosphere but I feel like there was too much going on. The acting was good but was ruined by the dull and in my opinion, non-existent story line.

Listen to the Reviews

[westsideschl · 2/10 · 24 April 2020]

I really wanted to give it three stars, but going over my notes plus how the movie felt - not justified. Positives: Unfortunately, there are none. Except they mentioned Kurt Cobain which had nothing to do w/anything, and not mentioned again. Negatives: Always a sign of cheapness is an opening (twice in this case) overhead view of a car on road. Heavily dependent on the overused, stereotypical, music & sound effects to startle you. Yawn. The usual ghostly apparitions in mirrors, windows, and in background. Very uncreative, and cheap looking. The usual isolated mansion/house w/lots of rooms w/stuff, and usual dark basement. And, a maze garden. A brief scene of a creepy tree which had no bearing on anything. Supposedly scary scenes in which our future victim has portending nightmares, and of course we don't know they're just dreams. Future victim, unfortunately in this genre is female, does not respond intelligently to what's going on. Ending, and alternative ending which was worse, was one of those "viewer decides" could be anything.

What an eye-rolling disaster

[tameradevine · 1/10 · 27 January 2020]

Oh COME ON!! Take one of the greatest horror stories of all time and turn it into a mishmash of cheap scares with a no-ending ending.

Myself and everyone else in the theatre where I saw this was just totally irritated they had wasted two hours of their life on this film.

Garbage

[seanfett · 2/10 · 26 January 2020]

I gave The Turning 2 stars. The only things worth looking at in this "film" are the wardrobe and the house. Other than that this junker gets 2 👎🏻👎🏻 And and extra long fart noise.

Worst movie of the year!!!

[justin-fencsak · 1/10 · 25 January 2020]

Before the turning came out, I never even heard of the story it is based on. Now that I've seen a mess of a movie, I might as well read the story to get a better knowledge on how the filmmakers adapted it for a modern audience. The only good thing about this movie is the 90s like soundtrack, which is available to stream on Spotify and other services and features a new track by Courtney Love. Avoid this movie at all costs and wait for A Quiet Place Part II to come out.

The Mystery part

[samhill5215 · 8/10 · 12 October 2020]

I won't go over the ending here. Most have bemoaned it, several have figured it out. But it's called a mystery for a reason and unless you're blind the clues are sprinkled throughout. You just need to look for them.

Work back from the point where Kate opens the envelope from her mother. In the scene where Kate is packing she picks up a stack of papers topped by an envelope suspiciously like the one she opens later. Why is her friend, Rose, asking her if she's taking them? Why is she worried about her even though Kate is going from a classroom of children to only one? Every time Kate calls her the first words out of Rose's mouth are "Are you OK?". The signs are already there. It's a mystery remember?

Then she visits her mother who is concerned about the responsibility Kate is taking on. Darla gives her a portrait, a colorful painting of her daughter quite unlike the featureless, black sheets in the envelope Kate opens at the estate and which send her into a tailspin. Isn't this the same envelope Kate packs? Listen to the song playing in Kate's headphones as she's walking through the asylum. It's called "I Don't Know". Its chorus is "Is it all in my head, Is it all in your mind, I don't know".

Enough said. There's more clues sprinkled throughout, too many to list but if you watch it again the ending becomes obvious. I think most people concentrated on the "horror" part and ignored the "mystery" part. I think the emphasis is on the latter and that's where this film is brilliant.

In it's defense, have you read the book?

[laurennickels · 6/10 · 26 January 2020]

Was it an 8 star film? No. But did it deserve the 3.7? Also no. The biggest complaint is the ending but I can tell you the book doesn't end any less abruptly so they didn't have a lot to go off of. If anything they gave you more information and plot in the movie. If you want to know the book ending, though, I can tell you Flora goes to live with her uncle shortly after the confrontation the movie ends on, Miles dies, and the governess takes a different job. People are complaining about how vague it was since you don't know if the ghosts are real or not but that is the entire point of the movie and book. Not knowing if you're going insane or not is almost scarier than the ghosts. The only thing that could've saved this movie based on a confusing and vague book is having a linear time line and not doing the "and the last half hour is all in her head" and left it at that. I think the movie worked with what it had, the acting was good, and Miles' character was well written because you didn't know whether to like him or not. I'm not going to see it again but I don't think it was a waste of my time.

The movie cats was better than this movie

[Jacksonsev · 2/10 · 26 January 2020]

I WATCHED THIS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO. Good performance from the lead actress. Subpar on everything else. The plot was so incoherent even for the brightest individuals. And SO many plot holes might I add. What was up with the beginning scene? That wasn't (maybe) imagined. That was from the little girls point of view. WHAT WAS THE STORY BEHIND THAT??? The movie was building up (with VERY disappointed jump scares) to something maybe interesting, but then dropped a nuclear bomb on the entire project. As a wise Ariana Grande once said,"thank you, next."

Poor Remake

[claudio_carvalho · 3/10 · 26 April 2020]

"The Innocents" (1961) is an ambiguous ghost story with the magnificent Deborah Kerr in the lead role. "The Nightcomers" (1971), with Marlon Brandon, explains the behavior of Flora and Miles in "The Innocents". Unfortunately "The Turning" is a poor remake of "The Innocents" without any explanation of the original story. The conclusion is ridiculous (or inexistent) and never provides the ambiguity of the original film to the viewer. The performances are not bad bus the screenplay is terrible and forgettable. If the viewer seeks out an explanation for the story, reads the plot and reviews of the original film to understand the plot. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Os Orfãos" ("The Orphans")