Shocktober: The Innocents

Directed by Jack Clayton

Written by John Mortimer, William Archibald, and Truman Capote adapting The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Starring Deborah Kerr (Miss Giddens), Megs Jenkins (Mrs. Grose), Martin Stephens (Miles), and Pamela Franklin (Flora)

Cinematography by Freddie Francis

Edited by Jim Clark

Released in 1961

A British manor during the turn of the century is the perfect setting for a horror film.

1. It's isolated, so any help that could possibly come will take a long time to get there.
2. It provides plenty of opportunities for doors to creak open, wind to blow ominously through curtains, and people to walk through darkened corridors lit only by candlelight.
3. It's huge and empty. There's only four main characters in The Innocents and they occupy a monumental house. That leaves plenty of space for them to be creeped out and go crazy from cabin fever.
4. The stereotypical British politeness and repression sets up a great conflict where highly rational people desperately try to deal with a supernatural, irrational situation.

Aside from its location, The Innocents makes some great choices in telling its story and building its mood. The first is that the film is very, very careful in maintaining its ambiguity. Is Giddens actually seeing ghosts or is her buttoned-down personality causing her to hallucinate? Are the children possessed or just creepily precocious? The Innocents never answers these questions. Kerr is in every scene of the film and every time something supernatural happens it's either within frame of Giddens or from her viewpoint. Other films that attempt "is it all real or not?", such as The Descent or Audition, ruin that tension by having revelations occur in frame with side characters or in more objective real shots (not to say those films are bad).

The Innocents has been justly praised for its cinematography (watch the Criterion supplements for an excellent technical overview). It's got that great Citizen Kane, deep focus look with Kerr in the foreground and foreboding things going on in the background. There's striking clashes between the manor's grand surface and the little bits of decay that are buried just underneath. And dissolves are used to marvelous effect to create a floaty, dreamy mood (a sequence near the middle where different dissolves and superimpositions pile-up is a true stand-out).

However, I found the soundscape more interesting. As the story progresses, it gets densely layered. Ominous woodwinds and brass set the tone. Distinct background noises like clocks, winds, and birds are always hovering nearby.  Various screams, laughs, mutterings, and whispers fade in and out of each other. Piercing shrieks and high-pitch noises flare-up whenever Giddens gets frightened. The manor amplifies every sound with a haunting echo. Combined, it wraps Giddens, and the viewer, in a sonic cocoon of slowly-building insanity. Like Eraserhead, The Innocents proves that sound is just as important in creating horror as image.