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If your taste in horror runs to the literary, there's no need to sacrifice chills and thrills. For example, here's a little gem that's far more cerebral than visceral, but still delivers the scares. It's all about...
By STACI LAYNE WILSON In The Innocents (1961) When Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) arrives for her governess job interview in London, she has no idea what she is in for. But she is soon set as straight as her Victorian posture. The children's' uncle (Michael Redgrave) sternly informs Miss Giddens that the manor house where the tots live is isolated, and lonely. But no matter--under no circumstances is he to be bothered with any questions, communiqués or problems, period. The household is hers to run, and the children basically hers to raise. Their parents died, he explains emotionlessly, and the unpleasantness of custody has fallen to him.
Rather than running in the other direction, Miss Giddens gladly accepts the job and looks forward to her new post. When she arrives at the bleak mansion, prim and proper Miss Giddens is greeted by the housekeeper, the rotund and kindly Mrs. Grose (Megs Jenkins) and the girl, Flora (Pamela Franklin). Flora is a flower of a child, fun-loving and sweet as a sweetpea.
Things begin to go awry--just a bit--when the boy, Miles (Martin Stephens), is expelled from his boarding school and sent home. Miss Giddens is sure there's been some terrible mistake; Miles is such a good, sweet little boy, he couldn't possibly have done anything to deserve expulsion.
But what can she do? She mustn't trouble their uncle, after all. Before long, sordid stories of the previous governess, Miss Jessel (Clytie Jessup) and the groundsman, Peter Quint (Peter Wyngarde) begin to bubble to the surface. They were both wicked people. were they lovers? They are both dead. Why?
Perhaps they are not really and truly dead and gone. Dead, yes, but not gone. Miss Giddens hears cries in the night, but Flora tells her to just ignore them. She sees apparitions at the window, but Mrs. Grose tells her to just calm down. The children are becoming less and less angelic with each passing day. Or are they? Is it all in the spinster governess's mind?
The best and most frightening spine-tingling in The Innocents is when the governess casually kisses young Miles good-night, then recoils in horror when she realizes that someone other than Miles has kissed her back. Despite its lack of any overt sexuality, much lies boiling beneath the gloomy, sharp-edged black and white surface.
Vampires were extremely popular in Victorian literature, because the avid readers (chiefly female) could be plied with descriptions of irresistible, mesmerizing eyes, long, conical fingers, and hard, sharp fangs that penetrate and bring forth fountains of hot, sticky liquid, not to mention unspeakable ecstasy. For the heroines of these penny dreadfuls, there could be sex without guilt, because "the devil made them do it." Here in The Innocents, it's about possession. Malevolent spirits possess the bodies of the young, innocent children and use them, much like the virtuous Victorian virgin bride was sexually possessed by her husband on the wedding night. She could enjoy the possession of her body without really being responsible for the rapture.
True Gothic horror, The Innocents is deftly directed and beautifully acted. Although there are holes in the story and much is left unsaid, the slow creeping, hairs raised on the back of your neck suspense is what it's all about here. There isn't a spot of blood, no one loses a limb or noggin, and not a single ax-wielding maniac comes leaping from the shadows. The movie itself is "innocent" of the stab and slab gore-fests we've come to know in this day and age.
Although I like buckets of guts and chainsaw massacres as much as anyone else, I wasn't bored for a moment during The Innocents. It's as unsettling as any modern-day psychological thriller because it employs elements that we as human beings pre-wired, right down in our lizard-brains, to fear: the dark, the unknown, the soul-stealing. The Innocents has deservedly earned its classic status, so if you haven't seen it yet it's available for rental and is perfect for a rainy afternoon (in fact, there's a certain rainy afternoon scene in the movie involving...well, you'll just have to see for yourself). (Visit author Staci Layne Wilson's great Website, where you can read intriguing stories and unusual articles, see fun photos, and check out the coolest links page ever!) Thanks so much, Staci, for turning the critical spotlight on this oft-overlooked spook film supreme. It's guaranteed to not only make you shiver but also to make you think as well. And that ending...brrrrr! Article copyright © Staci Layne Wilson. Visit her Website. |
