Before the Sixties, big screen
haunted house stories were
largely played for laughs.
Films like The Old Dark House
(1932), The Ghost Goes West
(1935) and The Cat And The
Canary (1939) were all about
skeletons and jump scares.
Audiences left the cinemas giddy and
excited instead of looking over their
shoulders, stalked by an unshakeable
sense of foreboding.
Even in fi lms later down the
line, that brand of ghostly, creaky-
fl oorboards horror continued to be a
bit of a giggle. Abbott and Costello
combined horror with comedy in the
likes of Abbott And Costello Meet
Frankenstein, Abbott And Costello
Meet The Mummy and Abbott And
Costello Meet The Invisible Man,WHAT HAPPENS TO A FILM WITH NO GENRE OR RESOLUTION? IT
BECOMES A CLASSIC. WE LOOK BACK AT THE INNOCENTS, ITS
MURKY ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN, ITS LACK OF SCHLOCK, AND WE
TRY TO MAKE SENSE OF THE AMBIGUOUS ENDING...Film
RUNNING TIME:
99 minutes
RELEASE DATE:
24 November 1961
DIRECTOR:
Jack Clayton
WRITERS:
William Archibald,
Truman Capote,
John Mortimer
C AS T:
Deborah Kerr,
Peter Wyngarde,
Megs Jenkins,
Michael Redgrave,
Pamela Franklin,
Martin StephensAbout
English rose Miss
Giddens applies for a
job as a governess to
two charming orphaned
children whose rich
uncle has no time for
them, and is soon
whisked off to Bly,
a gorgeous country
estate with cosy rooms
and glorious gardens.
However, things begin
to look a lot less idyllic
than previously thought
when the boy, Miles, is
expelled from school
and sent back to Bly for
good. While caring for
Miles and his younger
sister Flora, Miss
Giddens learns more
about the children, their
previous governess,
Miss Jessel, who died
suddenly the previous
year, and the ghosts
that seem to haunt
Bly’s grounds.106 |
THE INNOCENTS
RETRO CLASSIC
WORDS POPPY-JAY PALMERRetro
Classic
FilmW W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U Kwhile Vincent Price brought camp
exuberance in all-out exploitation
fi lms like House On Haunted Hill.
But director Jack Clayton didn’t
want to go for cheap gags with The
Innocents. He wanted to genuinely
frighten his audience and make a
ghost story exclusively for adults. High
levels of hysteria, age-inappropriate
kiss scenes, dead children, and an
overwhelming sense of dread creates
a viewing experience that makes The
Innocents quite unlike the haunted
house fi lms that came before it.
Made and released almost half a
century before the invention of viral
marketing, back when the World
Wide Web was still just a twinkle
in Tim Berners-Lee’s six-year-old
eye, actually getting The Innocents’
intended audience to the cinema tosee it proved to be something of a
challenge. Though the fi lm is now
considered by many to be a classic,
its mature themes caused it to get off
to something of a rocky start. The
usual horror marketing tactic of using
the schlock factor as a crutch wouldn’t
work in this case. The fi rst poster for
the fi lm was even heavily inspired
by the poster for Alfred Hitchcock’s
Psycho, with Deborah Kerr’s fearful
face taking up one side of it, just
like Janet Leigh’s, and a threatening
tagline that was only vaguely related
to the fi lm underneath: ‘Do they ever
return to possess the living?’ But it
seems that wasn’t enough.
The lack of schlock horror meant
critics that favoured Hammer’s
collection didn’t think it was gory
enough to be considered a properTHE INNOCENTS
We cannot trust what
Miss Giddens sees.Before the Sixties, big screen
haunted house stories were
largely played for laughs.
Films like The Old Dark House
(1932), The Ghost Goes West
(1935) and The Cat And The
Canary (1939) were all about
skeletons and jump scares.
Audiences left the cinemas giddy and
excited instead of looking over their
shoulders, stalked by an unshakeable
sense of foreboding.
Even in fi lms later down the
line, that brand of ghostly, creaky-
fl oorboards horror continued to be a
bit of a giggle. Abbott and Costello
combined horror with comedy in the
likes of Abbott And Costello Meet
Frankenstein, Abbott And Costello
Meet The MummyMeet The MummyMeet The Mummy and and Abbott And
Costello Meet The Invisible Man,WHAT HAPPENS TO A FILM WITH NO GENRE OR RESOLUTION? IT
BECOMES A CLASSIC. WE LOOK BACK AT THE INNOCENTS, ITS
MURKY ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN, ITS LACK OF SCHLOCK, AND WEBECOMES A CLASSIC. WE LOOK BACK AT THE INNOCENTS, ITS
MURKY ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN, ITS LACK OF SCHLOCK, AND WEBECOMES A CLASSIC. WE LOOK BACK AT THE INNOCENTS, ITS
TRY TO MAKE SENSE OF THE AMBIGUOUS ENDING...
MURKY ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN, ITS LACK OF SCHLOCK, AND WE
TRY TO MAKE SENSE OF THE AMBIGUOUS ENDING...MURKY ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN, ITS LACK OF SCHLOCK, AND WE
Film
RUNNING TIME:
99 minutes
RELEASE DATE:
24 November 1961
DIRECTOR:
Jack Clayton
WRITERS:
William Archibald,
Truman Capote,
John Mortimer
C AS T:
Deborah Kerr,
Peter Wyngarde,
Megs Jenkins,
Michael Redgrave,
Pamela Franklin,
Martin StephensAbout
English rose Miss
Giddens applies for a
job as a governess to
two charming orphaned
children whose rich
uncle has no time for
them, and is soon
whisked off to Bly,
a gorgeous country
estate with cosy rooms
and glorious gardens.
However, things begin
to look a lot less idyllic
than previously thought
when the boy, Miles, is
expelled from school
and sent back to Bly for
good. While caring for
Miles and his younger
sister Flora, Miss
Giddens learns more
about the children, their
previous governess,
Miss Jessel, who died
suddenly the previous
year, and the ghosts
that seem to haunt
Bly’s grounds.106 |
THE INNOCENTS
RETRO CLASSIC
WORDS POPPY-JAY PALMERRetroRetro
Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic ClassicRetro
ClassicRetroRetro
ClassicRetroRetro
ClassicRetroRetro
ClassicRetroRetro
ClassicRetroRetro
ClassicRetroRetro
ClassicRetroRetro
ClassicRetroRetro
ClassicRetroRetro
ClassicRetroRetro
ClassicRetroRetro
ClassicRetro
Classic
FilmFilmFilmFilmFilmFilmFilmFilmFilmFilmFilmClassic
FilmClassic Classic
FilmClassic Classic
FilmClassic Classic
FilmClassic Classic
FilmClassic Classic
FilmClassic Classic
FilmClassic Classic
FilmClassic Classic
FilmClassic Classic
FilmClassic Classic
FilmClassic Classic
FilmClassic
FilmW W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U Kwhile Vincent Price brought camp
exuberance in all-out exploitation
fi lms like House On Haunted Hill.
But director Jack Clayton didn’t
want to go for cheap gags with The
Innocents.Innocents.Innocents. He wanted to genuinely He wanted to genuinely
frighten his audience and make a
ghost story exclusively for adults. High
levels of hysteria, age-inappropriate
kiss scenes, dead children, and an
overwhelming sense of dread creates
a viewing experience that makes The
InnocentsInnocentsInnocents quite unlike the haunted quite unlike the haunted
house fi lms that came before it.
Made and released almost half a
century before the invention of viral
marketing, back when the World
Wide Web was still just a twinkle
in Tim Berners-Lee’s six-year-old
eye, actually getting The Innocents’
intended audience to the cinema tosee it proved to be something of a
challenge. Though the fi lm is now
considered by many to be a classic,
its mature themes caused it to get off
to something of a rocky start. The
usual horror marketing tactic of using
the schlock factor as a crutch wouldn’t
work in this case. The fi rst poster for
the fi lm was even heavily inspired
by the poster for Alfred Hitchcock’s
PsychoPsychoPsycho, with Deborah Kerr’s fearful , with Deborah Kerr’s fearful
face taking up one side of it, just
like Janet Leigh’s, and a threatening
tagline that was only vaguely related
to the fi lm underneath: ‘Do they ever
return to possess the living?’ But it
seems that wasn’t enough.
The lack of schlock horror meant
critics that favoured Hammer’s
collection didn’t think it was gory
enough to be considered a properTHE INNOCENTS
We cannot trust what
Miss Giddens sees.