A chilling Gothic tale, a haunting atmosphere, and a stunning use of scenery – THE INNOCENTS is everything that a haunted house movie should be. There are visual sequences in this film that you will never forget.
The Innocents (1961) (The Innocents)
Critic Rating
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- United Kingdom
- 1961
- · 100m
Director
Jack Clayton
Cast
Deborah Kerr,
Peter Wyngarde,
Megs Jenkins,
Michael Redgrave,
Martin Stephens,
Pamela Franklin
Genre
History,
Horror,
Thriller
Not off by her lack of prior experience, a wealthy bachelor hires Miss Giddens to be the governess of his orphaned niece and nephew whom he has no interest in rearing. Despite jovial first impressions with the children and housekeeper, Miss Giddens quickly suspects that something is amiss as she begins to hear voices and see ghosts haunting the grounds. In the process of confronting the supernatural, Miss Giddens questions her own sanity and desires.
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100
TV Guide Magazine
The Innocents manipulates the viewer's imagination as few films can, with Kerr and Redgrave doing a masterful job of creating a sense of repressed hysteria.
100
Total Film
The heart-stopping climax offers no answers: just the lingering unease of uncertainty.
100
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Clayton's filmmaking, mustering frisson by both candle and blazing daylight, could serve as an object lesson in its genre.
100
Time Out London by Cath Clarke
You can watch The Innocents twice and walk away with different conclusions. Psychological horrors have imitated its ambiguous ending ever since. Few have pulled it off half as creepily.
100
The Telegraph by Tim Robey
The film thrives on unsettling images of overgrowth and rot, such as the dead flower that drops at Kerr’s touch, and the beetle that crawls obscenely out of the mouth of a cherub statue.
100
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Clayton brilliantly uses slow dissolves to create ghostly superimpositions, and the harmless squeals of bath-time fun, or squeakings of a pencil, suggest uncanny screams.
100
The New Yorker by Pauline Kael
One of the most elegantly beautiful ghost movies ever made.
100
The Seattle Times by John Hartl
A perfectly balanced adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, with Deborah Kerr in her greatest performance. [05 Dec 1997]
100
Baltimore Sun by Michael Sragow
Thanks to Kerr's eloquent tremor of a performance, when the heroine witnesses apparitions, they're immediately credible to the audience. [29 May 2009, p.1C]
100
The A.V. Club by David Ehrlich
A ravishing neo-romantic takedown of Victorian repression, spooky and scathing in equal measure.
100
TV Guide Magazine by Michael Scheinfeld
The Innocents manipulates the viewer's imagination as few films can, with Kerr and Redgrave doing a masterful job of creating a sense of repressed hysteria.
100
Total Film by Kevin Harley
The heart-stopping climax offers no answers: just the lingering unease of uncertainty.
80
Variety
Catches an eerie, spine-chilling mood right at the start and never lets up on its grim, evil theme. Director Jack Clayton makes full use of camera angles, sharp cutting, shadows, ghost effects and a sinister soundtrack.
80
The Dissolve by Tasha Robinson
The film’s symbolism is never subtle, but that doesn’t make it any less effective.
70
Time
Director Jack (Room at the Top) Clayton, sensitively seconded by Cameraman Freddie Frances, has filled every coign and corridor with a dangerous, intelligent darkness. Moreover, the main performances are most capably carried off.
60
The New York Times by Bosley Crowther
Mr. Clayton and Miss Kerr have neglected to interpret the tale and character with sufficient incisiveness and candor to give us a first-rate horror or psychological film. But they've given us one that still has interest and sends some formidable chills down the spine.
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