Easily one of the greatest ghost films of all time.

Terrific B&W Cinemascope cinematography (mumps notwithstanding), wonderful use of sound and music, and some of the creepiest ambiance ever to grace the screen.

Completely unnerving. It starts slow, but give it time and its haunting atmosphere will creep into your bones, and really scare you. It's been a while since I've seen a horror film this good.

Deborah Kerr is once again cast as a governess in The Innocents, but this haunted house movie based on James' The Turn of the Screw gives her a very different role to play. As the charming but puritanical daughter of a minister, her finding something sinister in the playful behavior of the children in her charge should seem suspect, and yet, told from her perspective though it may be, there really is something disturbing going on. The ambiguity is merely an extra layer to a creepy tale of possession that works even on that surface level. Director Jack Clayton is on par with Hitchcock and Welles in his image-making. The lighting, the music, the production design, the choice of shots, the acting (even by the juvenile actors), everything works to sell the idea that Kerr would fall in love with these kids, then have reason to fear for their souls.