A Muddled, Boring Mess

Another adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. There have been good ones, and not so good; sadly, this is one of the latter. Director Floria Sigismondi gives the impression of having seen James Watkins' The Woman in Black and James Wan's The Conjuring, without actually understanding what makes them work. A director can have all the CGI, all the dimly lit corridors, all the barely glimpsed figures in the world - but if they don't have 'an eye for the creepy' it doesn't work. Chilling ghost stories that get under your skin are hard to do. Every flesh-creep has to be earned; they won't come automatically just because you've turned the lights down and put an out of focus figure in the background. As for the cast, young leads Finn Wolfhard and (especially) Brooklynn Prince are very good, and Barbara Merten (as the house keeper) is excellent. Mackenzie Davis' governess on the other hand is annoying and remarkably ineffectual. Killruddery House in County Wicklow, Ireland, is a suitably spooky location - but it's wasted here. I recommend watching Jack Clayton's classic The Innocents, or Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Bly Manor mini-series instead. 4/10