3. The Innocents (1961)
Miss Giddens successfully applies to be a governess to a young boy and girl. They are in the care of their wealthy, playboy uncle who tells Miss Giddens he likes to live the high life and he has no place for the children in his life. He basically wants to gad about the place with no cares so he tells Miss Giddens that he doesn't wish to hear anything about the children - just that she care for them in all respects and never bother him. The children's last governess - Miss Jessel died At the house, Miss Giddens immediately likes little Flora and makes friends with the pleasant housekeeper. She wonders where the little boy Miles is. She soon finds out when he is kicked out of boarding school for intimidating and upsetting other boys. But the Miles she meets is so mild mannered, she wonders how it could ever have happened. The kids are as thick as thieves but some of their behaviour worries Miss Giddens when she hears from the housekeeper that former governess Miss Jessel had an affair with Peter Quint - their uncle's valet. They would engage in sexual activity in from of the children. Whenever Quint died, Miss Jessel went into a terrible depression and killed herself. Miss Giddens believes that Flora and Miles are possessed by the ill fated lovers and it is down to her to save the children from their supernatural ordeal. Based on a novel by Henry James - The Turn of the Screw - The Innocents is a film that relies purely on atmosphere and the children's spooky behaviour for its frights. Images linger in the viewer's mind and take on ominous significance and added to the fact is that what you don't see is even more disturbing. A lot of people would argue that The Innocents is close to being a perfect horror film because of its reliance on psychological plot mechanisms and suggestion, rather than the outright gore and sadism of a film like Nightmare on Elm Street. I think there is a time and place for both types of film, but The Innocents carries a quietly sinister theme and makes it into the best British ghost based horror film ever made.