Floria Sigismondi's The Turning doesn't really have an ending.
It just stops, leaving viewers to puzzle over the surreal images that close out the film.
If you, like everyone else, were baffled by the horror flick's bizarre ending, we're here
to help.
A tale of two endings
The Turning offers two explanations for the spooky events at Bly Manor.
Either Bly is haunted by the ghosts of its late stablemaster, Quint, and Flora's former
governess, Miss Jessel, or Kate has gone completely crazy.
In a sense, the film has it both ways.
After Kate receives a package full of paintings from her mother, who's mentally ill, The Turning
quickly devolves into a frantic chase through a haunted house.
In this version, everything has a clear and obvious answer.
Quint assaulted Miss Jessel, then killed her when she tried to flee.
Bly Manor's caretaker, Mrs. Grose, killed Quint a few weeks later.
Quint and Miss Jessel's spirits now haunt the manor, and when the ghost of Quint turns
violent, Kate loads the kids into the car and flees.
Simple, right?
"It's not that simple."
Here's the twist: Once Kate escapes Bly, the film cuts back to the scene in which she's
looking at her mother's paintings.
It ends differently.
This time, instead of running, Kate confronts the children, clearly insane.
Miles taunts Kate, and then Kate has a vision of her mother painting.
As Mom lifts her head to Kate, Kate screams.
Cue credits.
The way the film is structured implies that the second ending is the "real" one.
At the end of the movie, Kate is insane.
It's not clear if the first ending was a prophetic vision or crazy person's fantasy, and we don't
know if Bly is actually haunted.
It doesn't matter.
Either way, Kate has lost her mind.
Going back to the source
So, what are we supposed to do with that information?
The original text might hold some clues.
The Turning is actually an adaptation of Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw, which
was published in 1898, and has been a popular ghost story ever since, with several film
and TV adaptations.
On the surface, The Turning and The Turn of the Screw have the same plot: A young woman
moves to an old estate, where she's charged with teaching an orphaned girl.
The girl's big brother arrives home unexpectedly after being expelled from his boarding school.
The governess begins to see the ghosts of Quint and Miss Jessel, and becomes convinced
that the kids do, too.
However, in the book, the ending is very different.
In the novella, the kids are very clearly haunted by two ghosts.
Flora is freed from Miss Jessel's spirit and escapes.
However, when the governess tries to make Miles explain why he was expelled, Quint appears.
The governess breaks Quint's hold on Miles, but the boy dies.
If you take the text at face value, then the ghosts at Bly Manor are very real but, as
you'll see, that's a big "if."
Following in Henry James' footsteps
Of course, while The Turn of the Screw's ending seems a lot clearer than The Turning's, ambiguity
is one of this story's oldest traditions.
As early as 1907, one critic suggested that The Turn of the Screw's ghosts aren't real.
Instead, the argument goes, everything supernatural happens in the governess' mind.
She killed Miles, not some evil spirit.
The blood is on her hands.
Some people agree.
Others don't, defending the governess and insisting that we're supposed to take The
Turn of the Screw at face value.
None of Henry James' other ghost stories play fast and loose with the narrator's sanity,
and nothing he said about the novella later suggests that we shouldn't take the governess
at her word.
It's a debate that continues to this day, although the discussion kind of misses the
point.
James scared his audience.
That was his real goal.
The Turning's weird and confusing ending seems to be director Floria Sigismondi's attempt
to capture that same ambiguity.
No, that doesn't explain exactly what happened at the conclusion of the film, but at least
it explains why the filmmaker decided to end things on such an odd note.
There's a clue in the title, perhaps.
In the original novella, the phrase "turn of the screw" appears twice.
Turning, or tightening, a screw increases tension.
The first time James uses it, he's talking about how to make a scary story even more
frightening.
The second time, the governess is discussing how the events at Bly Manor are testing her
sanity.
By calling the film The Turning, perhaps the filmmakers are emphasizing that the story
is really about Kate's descent into madness, and the ghost question is secondary, and eerily
ambiguous, just like in the novella.
Lingering questions
It's also very hard to rule out the existence of the ghosts entirely.
Kate starts hearing voices almost as soon as she moves into the manor, before Miles
starts playing psychological games with her.
Flora draws pictures of Miss Jessel.
The mannequin modeled after Miles and Flora's ancestor moves its head after Kate leaves
the room.
We're not seeing that through Kate's eyes, so it seems like it's real.
If it's not?
That's pretty sloppy storytelling.
Maybe The Turning's ghosts are real and maybe they're not.
In the end, they don't matter.
Like her mother before her, Kate goes crazy.
That's the real horror in the story.
Of course, that doesn't explain everything that happens in the movie.
Was the first ending all in Kate's head, or was there more to it?
Does Kate's mother have prophetic abilities, as The Turning subtly hints?
What exactly happened between Miss Jessel and Quint, and how did Quint's mysterious
accident occur?
The Turning offers answers to some of these questions, but actively refuses to commit
to any of them.
It's confusing and a little off-putting.
Ultimately, The Turning probably works best as a story about woman's descent into madness,
aided by a sadistic child and a bad draw at the genetic lottery.
As a ghost story, it's pretty run-of-the-mill.
As a cinematic exercise in frustrating mainstream horror audiences, it succeeds, wildly.
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