The Innocents

The Innocents directed by Jack Clayton (1961)

Hey there! I'm sorry, I had quite a busy day and I actually just remembered about the review. Luckily, I have just watched this particular film, so, I'm going to make a quick review.

The story begins with a woman accepting the job of governess for a couple of orphan children. She has to move away to the city, to a great house built in the middle of nowhere where these two children have been living (under the guardianship of another governess). Everything looks idyllic in the beginning but after some days have passed, this poor woman faces a terrible event. She sees people in the house, people who have long been dead. These ghosts are in fact, those of the people that used to work in the house before se arrived. I won't tell more of the story, just in case you want to watch the film.

What I found interesting about the film was the subtle use of suspense. The magic of moviemaking is here in its greatest splendour. Terrifying people by not showing much (you can actually see the ghosts but it's not them what scares you, what scares you is the thoughts that go through the governess's head as she walks round the house, looking for them).

To some, this might sound pretty much like The Others, by Alejandro Amenabar, it sure does, I kept thinking "hey, this looks familiar", but this was made in 1961, so I'm guessing that I should have watched this one first. They have many similar things but the concept itself is rather different, so again, don't stay away from this one just because you may have watched The Others

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All the characters in the film are quite well developed (Especially the governess). And, as you can imagine, the kids are creepy as hell, as in most horror films. The direction was brilliant, as I said before, whenever a horror film is told with such care for not actually showing what's going on, the move becomes (almost always) quite a masterpiece.  I was not much scared during the whole thing but it kept me watching it and thinking what the hell was going to happen next. It's intriguing, thrilling, and might be scary to some…

MadHatterSays: Watch it!

                               3.5/5