The Innocents:

[chillingfilmania]

One of my all time fave Brit film is the 1961 gothic supernatural chiller The Innocents. Based on the novel The Turn Of the Screw by Henry James the film tells the story of a young English governess who is employed to care for and tutor brother/sister siblings who live at a remote country mansion with their housekeeper.
Shortly after the governess arrives she begins seeing ghostly visons of a man and a woman in various parts of the estate. Thus starts a battle for good over evil as the ghosts of the former valet and governess try to possess the children. Has any of our BM crowd seen this excellent film.

I joined BM yesterday. I am from the harbor city of Sydney. Please call me CFM or Spookie or Chiller. Who likes a good old fashioned movie quiz? I have run them on other forums. Just say the word and I will create one on the Horror thread.


Below is a scene from The Innocents.

[darrenburnfan]

I believe filming began in February, 1961, although the film wasn't released until early 1962. Being 15 at that time, I was too young to be allowed in to see it with it being an 'X' film, but I do have it on a BFI DVD and it really is an excellent film superbly filmed in CinemaScope.

[Carl V]

Yes an excellent film, very atmospheric, and the black & white photography is superb. I love the old horror and supernatural films far more than the modern equivalents churned out these days.

Can I ask anybody who has this film on the Blu-ray released by BFI, if you found the sound slightly out of sync? Not sure if all the discs are like that or just mine.

[Odeonman]

The only film Jack Clayton made in CinemaScope. The money came from 20th Century Fox, so he had no choice but would no doubt have preferred to shoot it in 1.75:1.

[John Hamilton]

One of the best and most intelligent British horror movies of the 1960s, I think this is pretty much a perfect movie

[Tigon Man]

One of the best and most intelligent British horror movies of the 1960s, I think this is pretty much a perfect movie

I wouldn't go that far John!
A good movie, but not a great one I'd say. A bit surprising though that The Innocents and Sidney Hayers first rate Night of the Eagle, that Peter Wyngarde didn't carve out a career in the movies.

[Colin Smith]

A good movie, but not a great one I'd say.

It is certainly a great movie!!!
I have seen it again the other day, and a part from being absolutely beautifull visually (I mean every shot is art) it is a incredibly efficient and intelligent fantastic and gothic story, it manage to be terrifying and ambiguous. It also one of the most powerfool film made on childhood, it's weird beauty and inherent cruelty!

[chillingfilmania]

I believe filming began in February, 1961, although the film wasn't released until early 1962. Being 15 at that time, I was too young to be allowed in to see it with it being an 'X' film, but I do have it on a BFI DVD and it really is an excellent film superbly filmed in CinemaScope.

My info is film was released in October of 1961.. I first saw The Innocents at boarding school. Got chilled to the bone and never forgot it. Every time I have seen it since it still has the power to give me shivers. That to me is the sure sign of the quality of a horror film. You can have your blood soaked gore fests.. give me a atmospheric, pysycological thriller like The Innocents every time.

[chillingfilmania]

Who recognises the little girl who played Flora in The Innocents. No googling now. This could be the first question to test the waters for a quiz.

[jamal.nazreddin]

^ Wasn't it Pamela Franklin?


I can't think of this movie as a "Horror Movie.

I saw it a year ago and I can't think of any particular moment which was particularly horrible. There wasn't any blood. It was all happening in the mind of the displaced neurasthenic woman and her (probably illiterate) serving woman, wasn't it?

[John Hamilton]

[QUOTE=Tigon Man;n10888
...that Peter Wyngarde didn't carve out a career in the movies.[/QUOTE]

He had some demons of his own haunting his life!

[chillingfilmania]

^ Wasn't it Pamela Franklin?


I can't think of this movie as a "Horror Movie.

I saw it a year ago and I can't think of any particular moment which was particularly horrible. There wasn't any blood. It was all happening in the mind of the displaced neurasthenic woman and her (probably illiterate) serving woman, wasn't it?

It was Pamela Franklin. Would you like a quiz here? Do you need copious amounts of blood and gore for it to be a horror movie. Horror comes in many guises. This is a psychological horror/thriller/chiller. Call it what you will. It certainly chills my blood...over and over.

[Stephen Pickard]

One of the most chilling scenes for me is when the Kerr character plays hide and seek with the children. Desperate to find a hiding place she hides herself behind the large curtains. The camera is tight on her and all of a sudden Quint appears through the glass out of the night. Very effectively executed. Very difficult to create that chill in the audience. An effect without a drop of blood in sight. Not that blood is not effective, it can be when it is tastefully applied such as in some of the early Hammer Films.

[Tigon Man]

Yes the scene with Quint at the window was definitely a hide behind the sofa moment!

[zither]

It was! The film terrified me when I first saw it on television years ago.

Michael Redgrave makes the uncle/guardian a very dubious character.