Horrorfest 7: The Innocents

How come there aren't more classy horror flicks?

That's what I was thinking when THE INNOCENTS came to a close. There are plenty of classy flicks that get made each year, but few of them are ever horror flicks. If they're critically acclaimed they're usually small, creative independent productions, stuck together with spit and bubble gum, shot on the fly with amateurs. If there's a budget to be had, the movie is usually pure exploitation of the SAW or HOSTEL variety.

But a film like THE INNOCENTS, which I had never even heard of until the other day when I decided to watch it, is so great, so professional, so beautiful, so rich that it could easily rank up there with award winning dramas. Except, it just happens to have ghosts. Why aren't there more movies like this?

THE INNOCENTS is a British film, directed by Jack Clayton and starring Deborah Kerr. It's an adaptation of THE TURN OF THE SCREW, by Henry James, a book that sits on my shelf half-read. Some English major I turned out to be.

This is the second Fox film I've watched this October, also in Cinemascope, along with THE FLY, and both films are gorgeous. Unlike the blazing color of THE FLY, however, THE INNOCENTS is in a crisp black and white. Most of the action is set in and around a big, old Victorian mansion in the English countryside. The exteriors are bright and beautiful. The interiors drown in black shadows. Cinematographer Freddie Francis earned his paycheck.

In THE INNOCENTS, Deborah Kerr stars as a governess sent to the countryside to watch after two young children, a boy who has just been thrown out of boarding school and his younger sister who has made best friends with a turtle named Rupert to help combat her loneliness and isolation. It's interesting to see Kerr in this role. Growing up, my sister must have watched THE KING AND I roughly ten billion times, so I know her from that film and, to a lesser extent, from one of my mom's favorites, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER. Her governess role in THE INNOCENTS isn't all that far removed from her role as the teacher Anna in THE KING AND I, except Anna has a little more common sense and the governess in this film has a tendency toward letting her imagine get the best of here. After watching this film, I was not surprised to read that Deborah Kerr considered this her greatest performance.

As Kerr's character uncovers the sordid past of the previous governess and valet, who were involved in an abusive affair and who both turned up dead, she becomes unsettled with the behavior of the children, who she thinks are obviously disturbed by this recent history as they both idolized their gender counterparts -- young Flora falling in love with her deceased governess, and young Miles looking up to the deceased valet as a father figure.

Aside from the increasingly strange behavior of the children, Kerr begins to see shadowy figures out of the corner of her eyes -- at the top of towers, wading in the long grass of the nearby lake and in two particularly creepy shots, materializing in dark windows and passing silently in abandoned hallways. Could these be the ghosts of the ill-fated governess and valet? Is Kerr letting her imagination run away with her? Or, is she simply insane?

A lot of the film's key moments rely on performances from children, and these two kids really rise to the challenge. Young Pamela Franklin as Flora is always creepily singing and humming in the background while young Martin Stephens as Miles seems too mature and wise for his age, treating Kerr's governess as if she's his equal, even flirting with her in some disturbing scenes. Both kids get a chance to really show their stuff as they both melt down towards the end of the movie, and Martin Stephens, especially, leaves a great impression as his cloyingly cute facade fades away and his fear surfaces.

The movie is creepy from the first frame, as a young voice sings a foreboding song over a black background. The mood doesn't let up as we fade in to Deborah Kerr desperately praying in the dark, visibly upset. We don't find out until the final shot of the film why she's praying or why she's upset.

But, her first line gives a clue, and what a first line it is:

"All I want to do is to save the children. Not destroy them."