The Turn of the Screw, a book written by Henry James, is considered one of the most influential Gothic horror books ever written, which, in turn, gave rise to one of the most influential classics of cinematic terror: The Innocents (1961). Of course, when hearing rumors of a possible new adaptation of this classic work, a person tends to fear the worst, as it will be difficult to achieve the splendor of the original film. In this way, can Chill be at the level of the original? The answer is a round no, this film only serves to confirm the initial fear caused by the announcement of this new adaptation.

I’m not going to lie, the film manages to build a Gothic atmosphere, out of a tale from the era, with beautiful cinematography, centered on the house and the estate and its eminent threat to the new tenant. However, atmosphere, a decent performance and a promising start cannot save the film from a confused and uninspired script.

The skeleton of the original work remains (although, for no apparent reason, it happens now during the 90s), a young caretaker is called to work in the decrepit and old Bly mansion, a mansion inhabited by two brothers whose parents died, Miles (who in this version, loses any kind of threat adjacent to her character) and Flora, and by a maid in charge of looking after orphans. After a few days at the mansion, the janitor begins to experience paranormal phenomena.

However, and unlike the original film, this new version of the events is not built with the same type of ambiguity as to the existence of frightening phenomena, it does not use psychological terror in a really effective way, considering itself more intelligent than in the reality is. The film introduces some interesting ideas, but lets them fall into the deepest clichés of the genre (like the use of jump scares), and apart from one or the other chilling sequence, the film just doesn’t know how to be scary.

One of the biggest problems in the film is the use of special effects on ghosts, which remove any kind of frightening effect that simplicity could have offered them, and which make the few ghost appearances ineffective. Given that the appearances are sporadic and the characters relatively uninteresting, the pace at which the film goes also suffers during its duration, as it drags mainly in the middle, where little happens and the disinterest begins to be felt by the cinema.

I must add that never in cinema did I visualize such a pretentious ending, without any kind of nexus or logic and that invalidates the entire trip that had been completed throughout the film. It was not a deserved ending, it was just an attempt to give rise to the ambiguity felt in the original, it was an ending indicator that my time had been wasted watching this film, which is nothing more than a confusing narrative.

On the whole, The Turning is a film that just isn’t worth it, and if it weren’t for the fact that it had a beautiful cinematography, a well-built atmosphere, some decent interpretations and a clear effort behind the making, it would really be worthy of a star.