Yesterday evening, my daughter wanted a very scary story. She told me a few of one of her favorite writers, then I told her a few. I was reminded of this story, which is filmed as ‘The Innocents’, one of the most intriguing scary stories I’ve ever read, because there is no clear explanation at the end of what really happened. There are different plausible possibilities, but you’re left unsure at the end of the story.
Henry James wrote it as “The turn of the screw”. The atmosphere and tone of the story won’t let you stop reading until the very end. I’ve seen a few television adaptations, but this movie is still the best filmed version in my opinion.
After all these years, it’s still worth watching. No tricks and special effects, the story itself is enough for the film to be fascinating in this case:
Deborah Kerr does remind me a bit of myself in this film, in the time when I used to babysit the children of some friends. That doesn’t mean of course that my life is like the character she is portraying in this movie. The resemblance stops right there, because I was never a nanny, I just looked after others children for a few hours or a day, in addition to raising my own children.
Very often a movie has some detail that is like my life, which doesn’t mean my life is completely like that movie or tv film, it’s just one detail. People often misunderstand that. You tell them that one detail of that movie is like something you do or something you have or something someone you know does or have, and they change your words and lie that you said your life is exactly like that character of that movie, while you never said that, it was just one detail.
I think every person finds one or more details of his or her life in a movie or tv film. It’s normal. Please don’t make a fuss about anything someone finds resembling from this movie to his or her own life, just enjoy the film. 