Henry James’ ghosts endure
“Bly Manor” a new entry in “Turn of the Screw” canon
Henry James’ 1898 horror novella “The Turn of the Screw” has been adapted into many forms since it was published, including in opera, ballet and theater — some of them great works in their own right.
The story, about a young governess who is hired to tend to two orphans at a spooky country estate, has been perfect adaptation fodder because of its characters’ shadowy back stories and its central ambiguity: Are the ghosts in the story real, or only in the mind of the governess?
Perhaps nowhere has James’ story proved more fertile than onscreen — mostly in movies, although versions of the story have appeared in TV shows like “Star Trek: Voyager” and the 1960s and ’70s horror soap “Dark Shadows.” On Friday, Netflix will debut the latest such offering, “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” a stand-alone follow-up to “The Haunting of Hill House.” Here’s a look at some of the most compelling screen versions so far.
‘The Innocents’
With a screenplay by Truman Capote, “The Innocents” (1961) remains the most acclaimed adaptation, partly because of how faithful it is to the original. It depicts all of James’ narrative beats, as the governess (Deborah Kerr) enjoys an idyllic life bonding with a housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (Megs Jenkins), and the two children, Flora and Miles — that is, until she begins to believe that the ghosts of a previous governess, Miss Jessel, and a valet, Peter Quint are possessing the children.
‘The Nightcomers’
A prequel starring Marlon Brando (with a terrible Lucky Charms-style Irish accent), “The Nightcomers” (1971) backfills the novella’s rough sketches of the lives of Quint (Brando) and Miss Jessel (Stephanie Beacham), their relationship and their corrupting influence on the children. Empowered by the more sexually open filmmaking of the 1970s, here the adults are given a sadomasochistic relationship that Miles and Flora (older here) spy on and begin to imitate.
‘The Others’
The specter of James’ novella looms over “The Others” (2001), which is not a direct adaptation (it’s set in the aftermath of World War II and features a mother instead of a governess) but uses familiar narrative building blocks: A woman (Nicole Kidman) watches over her two children in an isolated country estate, which appears to be haunted by ghosts. Its tone, however, is where “The Others” most echoes James and “The Innocents,” spooking audiences with a similar slow-burn dread and an uneasy uncertainty about what exactly is going bump in the night.