The Turning
Miss Jessel, the live-in tutor at the Fairchild Estate, flees the house in a panic. When she reaches the gate, she exits her car to open it and is attacked by a ragged looking man.
Some time later, Kate Mandell is leaving her job as a teacher to become a governess for the seven year old Flora Fairchild after Miss Jessel’s disappearance. Before leaving she visits her mother, who lives in a mental institution because she suffers from delusions. Upon arriving at the Fairchild Estate, Kate is informed by the caretaker Mrs. Grose that Flora witnessed her parents die in a car accident outside the house’s gate and is a “special case.” Kate meets Flora who gives her a tour of the grounds, and confesses that she is afraid Kate will leave her without saying goodbye like Miss Jessel did, but Kate promises not to.
That night, Kate investigates a disturbance in the East Wing, which Flora refused to show her earlier. There she encounters Flora’s brother Miles, who is back from boarding school. Despite avoiding the subject as to why he has returned, the following day Kate receives a call from the school’s principal who informs her that Miles is expelled after being found strangling another boy. This startles Kate, who only becomes more aggravated with him when he and Flora begin pulling pranks on her. She lashes out at Miles, but later apologizes. Miles suggests he teach her how to ride horses to make it up to her, as their former riding instructor Quint had recently died.
Kate starts to notice strange occurrences happening at night, so she begins to keep her lights on when she goes to sleep. One day she suggests they go into town, to the dismay of both Flora and Mrs. Grose. Miles convinces Flora to go, but she throws a fit outside the gate and proceeds to run out of the car after Kate refuses to stop it. Miles warns her that keeping the lights on would not keep her safe and warns her to leave before going after Flora. However, Kate decides to stay due to her promise to Flora.
After reconciling with both Flora and Miles, they play flashlight tag in the house. While looking for Miles in the basement, Kate is attacked by the ghost of Miss Jessel and has her flashlight taken away after she drops it. Kate finds Miss Jessel’s journal which contains increasingly frightening entries about how Quint was obsessed with her, wouldn’t leave her alone, and even took pictures of her while she slept. When Kate enquires about it, Mrs. Grose says tells her that Quint died a couple weeks following Miss Jessel’s departure when he fell from his horse while riding drunk. Kate is frightened by this information and the journal entries, and continues to see Quint and Miss Jessel’s apparent ghosts around the house, making her increasingly paranoid.
Kate receives art from her mother in the mail, and Mrs. Grose comments that it’s lucky her mother’s condition “isn’t genetic.” She is led by wet footprints and Miss Jessel’s ghost to discover her dead body in a pond on the house grounds. Kate also has a vision of Quint raping and strangling Miss Jessel upon returning to the house. She tells Mrs. Grose, who appears to have already known about it and assures Kate that she made sure that Quint died. Quint’s ghost appears and pushes Mrs. Grose over the stair bannister, killing her. Kate gathers the children and takes them away in her car.
The following sequence[clarification needed] is revealed to have been a vision Kate had while looking at her mother’s art and Mrs. Grose saying it’s lucky her mother’s condition “isn’t genetic.” Kate walks in on the children talking about her and becomes convinced that she sees Quint’s ghost in the mirror, insisting that Flora saw him too despite her protests. When Kate accidentally breaks Flora’s doll, Miles takes her away from Kate and smirks at her, calling her delusional. Kate later walks into her mother’s mental institution and approaches a figure that appears to be her mother; as the figure turns around Kate screams in horror. The face of the figure is not revealed.
Classification: 15