“The Innocents” is a film from the dawn of the modern horror era. The 1961 piece is considered gothic psychological horror. It was directed by Jack Clayton and based on the 1898 novella “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James.
Coming one year after Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” “The Innocents” came at a time when horror was revolutionary to many viewers. As I watched in 2025, I saw numerous elements employed that have been used thousands of times in the decades since. Many haunted houses and ghost stories would obviously draw inspiration from this, the original source.
Scary from the Start
The opening is downright spooky. We hear children singing some ominous lyrics about death. Kids are always creepy, and I was a bit shaken to see them activated this way for a film from 1961.
Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) has taken the job of governess. She will be working at a remote mansion that is clearly haunted. The man (Michael Redgrave), said to prefer woman who are young and pretty, hires her to look after his orphaned niece and nephew.
We’ve encountered this scenario in horror before – or should I say since. A caretaker of some kind is dispatched to a far-away location, her charge being a pair of creepy kids (Pamela Franklin and Martin Stephens).
Miss Giddens learns from the kind old housekeeper (Megs Jenkins) that the previous governess (Clytie Jessop) died under mysterious circumstances. As the behavior of the kids gets weirder and weirder, Miss Giddens begins seeing the spectral image of a man (Peter Wyngarde) stalking the grounds.
Deborah Kerr was known as “The English Rose” due to her red hair. We can’t see color in this movie, but Kerr is sound in her performance nonetheless. Kerr was one of the most regarded actresses during her peak from the 1940s-1960s. She is tied with Thelma Ritter and Amy Adams (the latter of which is also a red-haired siren) as the actresses with the second most Academy Award nominations (6) without winning.
Classic Cinema
What’s fun about older movies is finding the source of inspiration for films that follow. “The Others,” “The Haunting of Hill House,” even “Paranormal Activity” gain influence from the past. Its easy to spot camera shots, scary moments, and special effects that are drawn from this picture.
At 100 minutes “The Innocents” has some slow moments, par for the course when dealing with a film from this period. Nothing egregious, but I did find myself stirring in my seat as the melee unfolded. And of course, the score adds nothing and detracts everything from the horror moments.
“The Innocents” is a solid spooky movie. It’s fun to watch as a history lesson alone, as one of the first haunted house ghost stories with some genuinely scary parts.
