The Innocents (1961)
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The Innocents Movie Review
The Innocents is a 1961 psychological horror film directed by Jack Clayton and starring Deborah Kerr. It’s one of the decade’s greatest horror achievements.
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“Oh willow I die,
oh willow I die…“
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It follows a governess who watches over two children and comes to fear that their large estate is haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed. This is a somewhat different ghost tale than usual as it entirely relies on possession and the twist here is that the children are possessed by adult people so we get a couple of awkward kisses here and there and just the concept itself is very much out there for a 60s feature.
It’s impressively modern in that regard and in its absolutely thrilling horror sequences, but it’s at its heart an old-fashioned period piece and that I simply ate up. It’s very charming with outspoken, very intelligent people with absolutely superb dialogue, and a couple of very intense conversations.
Deborah Kerr here gave one of her career-best performances. She’s so magnificent in fact that her Oscar exclusion was very much a shameful snub. She sold all of her emotional scenes and she had to play a conflicted, but at the end of the day progressively brave and powerful woman who remains the brain and the heart of the movie.
The kids themselves are also great and particularly creepy in a couple of scenes. Flora is so cute and Miles is an intriguingly troublesome kid. Mrs. Grose is such a wonderful person and I loved the relationship between the two women.
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I found the backstory of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel essential for this movie as it permeates the entirety of this movie in terms of darkness and danger. I found their relationship and what they would do very brave for such an old movie as it’s tackled with quite a lot of detail.
And thus those horror sequences really work. I loved the final scene as that dialogue is superb, the emotion is really felt and the statues moment is chilling, but the scene that creeped me out the most has to be the terrace sequence which is simply perfectly executed and it remains the movie’s most memorable, most effective piece.
The biggest reason why The Innocents works so well has to be its cinematography. This movie is so gorgeously shot, so sumptuous and so stunning to look at that I was frequently quite mesmerized with it and it made me want to pause the movie to admire its gorgeous imagery. This truly is one of the finest-looking black-and-white movies of all time.
I loved the castle and all of its rooms, but I adored that swamp lake, the statues, the terraces and the tower and the gazebo are both highly important settings for many of the film’s horror scenes. In terms of costumes, imagery and photography, it’s a gorgeous historical picture that remains stunning to this day, but its score is also magnificent and the sound effects are very effective.
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The movie is quite slow paced in some parts. Even though I was mostly riveted by it, the first half definitely is devoid a bit too much of the horror scenes and the build-up is too long. The movie needed more horror moments, but those that we got are all great. And I also appreciated the movie’s ambiguous nature which led to a psychologically truly effective picture that is also very well directed and superbly acted across the board.
The Innocents unquestionably is one of the most gorgeous black-and-white films of all time as the cinematography is stunning, the costumes are phenomenal and its setting and time period are brought to life beautifully thanks to its meticulous attention to detail. It also features a terrific performance from Deborah Kerr, a chilling atmosphere, a couple of genuinely creepy moments and a wonderfully told, very dark and indelible storyline. It surely is one of the greatest horror films from the sixties.
