‘The Turning’ Review
How do you know that something is a horror movie? Do you want to know what is a horror movie? Hey, did you know this is a horror movie? Here’s some more horror. Not satisfied yet? Well, it is a horror movie and it is horror. The Turning will make sure that you’ll understand what you’re seeing but not why you’re seeing it. It is absolutely unrelenting with the way it sets up and ends every scene to the point that you need to make sure you’re not watching a fan compilation video on Youtube. Hidden somewhere very deep, there is a perfectly okay haunting film but the script will never go beyond the first 15 minutes when it comes to expanding the story.
If The Turning had had any self-awareness, it would have trusted its kid actors more instead of throwing them into a dumpster fire. Brooklynn Prince as Flora is perfectly good for a weird child in a horror film but nothing she gets to say has any meaning for the story. Finn Wolfhard’s character Miles has about seven different issues going on but you never get to explore them again after they appear for the first time. It also doesn’t help that Wolfhard’s delivery is all just monotone line reading and zero expression. Mackenzie Davis as the governess/main character Kate spends most of her screen time just panting heavily rather than doing anything interesting.
The panting and the use of ”it was all a dream” starts to get annoying to hear and watch pretty fast. The story and the script is abysmally empty which is what the beginning of this review references. I’m not joking when I say that every scene during the 90-or-something minutes has a horror element: jump scare, loud noise, disturbing imagery or heavy panting. Would it have been so bad to have at least one scene with character work or a proper conversation? And to make matters worse: the ending. It throws out everything you saw in the movie and vanishes it to obvilion. Maybe they ran out of money to continue production or something. After the credits started rolling, I couldn’t for the life of me tell something unique that the director Floria Sigismondi did here.
Smileys: Brooklynn Prince
Frowneys: Screenplay, story, ending, Finn Wolfhard
The turning off your screen and going outside to remember times with good movies.
1.0/5
