The Turning (2020)
There will be two camps of people who see The Turning; those completely bewildered by its ending and those who understand it but don’t care. Leaning more towards the psychological thriller genre than a proper horror, everything about the plot is too obvious… when it isn’t directly misleading you by cheating.
In the ‘90s (specifically, shortly after the death of Kurt Cobain) Kate Mandell (Mackenzie Davis) is hired as the governess of the wealthy, orphaned Flora (Brooklyn Prince) and Miles Fairchild (Finn Wolfhard). Something about the Estate doesn't feel right to Kate. Is the home haunted or is Kate merely subject to the same kind of delusions as her mother?
General audiences are going to hate this movie but it gets certain things right. The cast is quite good. Particularly enjoyable is Barbara Marten as Mrs. Grose, the elderly caretaker. She’s creepy without even trying. Mackenzie Davis convincingly plays a vulnerable woman who feels like her sanity is slipping through her fingers - you don’t recognize her at all as the cybernetically-enhanced solder from Terminator: Dark Fate. The atmosphere is gloomy and the house naturally lends itself to feelings of unease. The pieces are there to make a good movie.
How many bad days would it take for you to quit your job? Probably several if you’ve been at it for long, you need the money and you don’t want a bad reference. But what if every day and night you were petrified with fear? A passage of time is implied in The Turning but we never see Kate have a good day. Why does she stay at the Fairchild Estate when the children displaying psychotic behavior torment, she finds a disturbing diary from the previous governess, she's hated by Mrs. Grose, and begins seeing apparitions?
Eventually, what you want out of the movie changes. You give up on Kate. She’s weak and ineffective. Now, you want her to fail. Ideally, the picture will end with Kate going all Jack Torrance on the household. Chop ‘em all up I say.
I won’t criticize the film for its jump scares. Theoretically, we’d be kept wondering whether Kate is sane or not. Seeing a ghost/hallucination would cause an immediate reaction in anyone and I buy that a supernatural figure would be fleeting. Several of the jumps also come from the children deliberately attempting to frighten Kate. These would also be earned if not for the conclusion. Without giving anything away, certain things we see throughout the picture do not make sense once we know the real cause of Kate’s malaise. This sort of thing’s worked before. It doesn’t here.
Unlike most of the lousy horror movies we get in the early months of the year, The Turning at least feels like it’s trying to be good. That doesn’t mean much, unfortunately. This adaptation of Henry James’ classic novel tries to have it both ways and winds up satisfying no one. (Theatrical version on the big screen, January 27, 2020)
