It's always hard to do a remake or adaptation of a classic like Henry James' "Turn of the Screw." The director, actors, and crew must transpose a lot of printed words into visual images and sound. It ain't easy.The performers can do a lot to add realism to the movie. Diana Rigg, for instance, is the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, and without seeming to do so she turns a dull and unimaginative old lady into a human being by the pitch and stress of her voice and by occasional sideways glances that aren't in the novella but which suggest she's smarter than she looks.Valerie Bertinelli does a TV version of the heroine, Helen Walker, who was unnamed in the original. She's not bad, considering the challenge presented by a display of creeping madness.But cast and crew aside, there's another element to be considered -- the intended audience, whose nature will help structure and color the narrative. Any movie is a joint project between the producers and the consumers. In this instance, the producers have presented the audience with a kind of Rorschach ink blot and the viewers have to decide, among other things, whether or not it's a picture of a crazy lady.The intended audience is the TV viewer looking for something interesting but not too demanding. "The Haunting of Helen Walker" fills the bill. It's not too demanding. For example the governess is given a name right off the bat because it make writing the screenplay easier and it doesn't prompt the audience to wonder if her name was left out by mistake.Most of the better-done stories of threats and danger take a while to build up tense anticipation. We don't get a look at Bruce the Shark until half-way through "Jaws," and the same with "King Kong." The mysterious and evil figure in "The Third Man" has about fifteen minutes of screen time towards the end. In "The Turn of the Screw" evil is represented by two not-quite-real figures who are only gradually insinuated into the tale. But in "The Haunting of Helen Walker," with an impatient audience in mind, the producers give us the first supernatural shock at ten minutes into the story. (The second comes ten minutes later.) Between eerie incidents, the movie lets us see the governess daydreaming about the handsome young master of the country estate, whom we see only briefly at the start. James let us infer her yearning for a suitable husband.I've been kind of harsh on "The Haunting of Helen Walker" but it's not a bad movie. They haven't taken a meat ax to James' ghost story. It gets more confusing towards the end, almost hysterical. I don't know what James had in mind. Is she nuts or not? Maybe all James wanted to do was write a chilling tale about ghosts and such.

I know, I know. The movie version of a novel doesn't usually meet the expectations of the reader resp. the viewer. Especially if the text is as masterfully written as the Henry James novella "The Turn of the Screw". But shouldn't a good film stick to the main idea of the novel? Which in this case is not only the nature of certain underlying motives for the main characters' actions but also the ambiguity of these motives. James's novella is not just a simple ghost story. It's a subtle psychological probe of a person's state of mind, using literary means. This can also be achieved with cinematic means if the screen writer and the director and the editor of the film are up to their tasks. The best examples for successful achievements in this area are Roman Polanski's "The Tenant" and Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining". But you don't have to be a genius to make a good mystery movie. You should just avoid the usual stereotypes and the cheap tricks and the obvious traps that come with the genre.So, if you have read the novella and liked it don't watch this movie. If you just want to watch a simple horror movie this one might be a good catch. But don't pretend, in one of your next party small talks, that you've read James's novella. You might get psyched out.

Based on The Turn of The Screw by Henry James, a new governess {Valerie Bertinelli} for two children arrives at a beautiful Gothic mansion in the English countryside complete with a private lake. Although the Lord of the Manor will not be present, placing all responsibility upon her shoulders - he being a confirmed bachelor, and she a lonely young childless widow, she implores for the opportunity.Upon her arrival, she spots a face in a blackened window, then later a man on top the tower, and the same lady by the lake. She encounters former Lord of the Manor Peter Quint gazing menacingly in at her from outside a window on a Sunday morning just before church, in which she had just mentioned that The Devil 'causes obstacles for the faithful on Sundays' {the classic "Speak of The Devil and The Devil appears"}. His eyes flicker and long black hair frames a pale face, as Helen is terrified speechless.The Lady by the lake is Miss Jessel attired in a black dress in which she drowned by suicide after Quint, her lover, fell from that tower. Ms. Walker seems to be sensitive to the ghostly apparitions therein, although head maid Mrs. Grose does not believe her at first, fearing Helen may be losing her mind, yet subsequent strange events become undeniable. The children Flora and Miles steadily become possessed by these shades and set their mischievousness upon their new American governess.In the end, Emily Jessel and Peter Quint are reunited in a passionate embrace, and despite his beckoning for her to join them, Helen falls back in fright. She attends to the children to free them of the clutches of this devilish rogue, whose reputation is regarded as a monster, lecher, carouser, not only by the resident maids {whom it is assumed he took liberties with}, but also the goodly groundskeeper Barnaby, who held the opinion that "god" struck him down {perhaps a wee bit of jealousy there?}. ∞

I am a huge horror fan and this film is up there with the best of them. I might even go so far as to compare the shocks in this film to those found in 'Don't Look Now'. It starts quite slowly and seems to be just an ordinary period drama to begin with, but soon your heart will start beating.The first shock is totally unexpected and will still scare you when you think about it later. I won't give it away, but you'll notice it! Although the film does have some slower bits, there are enough twists, turns and shocks throughout to keep you interested. One of the only bad parts of this film is the children that Helen Walker looks after. I wanted to give them (especially the boy) a good slap, but this does not decrease the power and shock of the images that'll keep you thinking about this film long after you've seen it.