| Overall Grade: |
A+ |
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| Story: |
N/A |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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My Pick For The Greatest Ghost Story Ever
by donmac (movies profile)
Aug 7, 2007
Synopsis: “The Innocents” is based on Henry James’ classic ghost story “The Turn of the Screw” which is about a young woman who is hired by a wealthy man to become the governess of his young niece and nephew at a secluded English estate. Once there, the young woman begins to see strange events that lead her to suspect that ghosts may haunt the mansion and that the two children are in great danger.
Review: I began to think that I was now immune to horror movies because none that I’ve seen in the past few years has succeeded in scaring me. I can watch classic horror movies like “The Exorcist” while munching popcorn, enjoying it but never feeling scared or even a little disturbed. More recent horror films, such as the “Scream” films, also fail to scare me even a little. And the only emotion that “The Blair Witch Project” elicited from me was anger at the stupidity of the characters in the film. Only “The Sixth Sense” and “The Others (2001)” succeeded in disturbing me a bit due to an effective spooky atmosphere created in both films. But seeing “The Others” also made me remember long ago seeing an older B&W film from the '60s with a very similar plot. That film is “The Innocents (1961)” which – like “The Others” – features a woman trying to protect two children (a boy and a girl) from a mysterious spooky presence in a large mansion. Now that I’ve rewatched “The Innocents” I have to say this: this is one of the greatest horror films ever made! Why? Because this movie actually scared me! There's no gory scenes in this film at all, just an effective spooky atmosphere that grows more and more chilling and left me with a truly haunted feeling once it was over.
“The Innocents” was way ahead of its time in style, with excellent modern performances from the entire cast (including the two kids) and the use of an unsettlingly eerie, modern-sounding score to help disturb viewers (a surround sound remix would amplify this effect even more). The filmmaking techniques on display have never been improved upon, making “The Innocents” one of the least dated movies I’ve ever seen (and I am someone who watches a lot of older films). The fact that it was filmed in B&W and stars Deborah Kerr are the only give-aways that it’s an older movie. Obviously, I’m avoiding revealing what happens in the film, but I will say that the ending – unlike the ending of “The Others” – was very disturbing once I thought it over and understood what had really happened in the film. I was haunted by this ending for many days after seeing the film, an effect few newer movies have on me. Because of the high quality of the film and its very effective chilliness, “The Innocents” has move high on my list of the greatest horror films ever.
Note: I was extremely disappointed that I could only find “The Innocents” on VHS and that no DVD release is available or even planned. I certainly hope the success of “The Others” will lead a certain studio to rediscover the jewel in its film vault and release this great movie in a special edition DVD with a remixed surround soundtrack someday.
Film Rating: A+ [Horror] |
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