The Innocent (1961)

The Innocents (1961) (Jack Clayton)

I am typing this while alone in the house. My father has left for an urgent family business. I am, of course,e in supreme charge. I am a 47-year-old man. I also have not lived alone for over 20 years, and while this is a temporary moment , I am also a 47-year-old man who had a mild anxiety attack while frying an egg earlier this evening and checks his keys as there is no one to let me back into the house. Between these bouts of immaturity, I sit, eat my fried egg, and miss my dad.

This weighs on my mind from the outset of the innocents. A title that could apply to Flora and Miles, the children of the Bly estate, or Miss Giddens herself. The film is a template for many we have seen since 1961, but with no knowledge of the film or its story, I found it wrenching and brilliant in how shocking and mesmeric it could be.

Ostensibly a traditional gothic tale of old mansions, rooms left abandoned, children went to develop almost ferally, and a sense of status placed on a woman who in many ways could be deemed as unworldly as the children seem otherworldly within the tale. 

We primarily see the world through Miss Giddens’s eyes. In some ways, it is portrayed as the end of an ingenue with aspirations; in others, it is a sharp woman who can see some sort of betrayal, but at no point do we question her affection and sense of duty towards the children.

However, as the house’s secrets become more revealed and we understand the sense of scandal, some significant effects in editing and lighting ensure our uncertainty. At times, the film would bleed into colour, and the reveal would be that this was, in fact, a prequel to Hereditary or another James Wan production.

The child actors are great at beginning an obtuse menace to their scenes. Both exuberant and enthusiastic while testing the boundaries of proprietary, one can feel the influence of adults acting up in their presence.

But the film neveralways keepsake from takingmple view. The view is no exposition, just supposition from Miss Giddens as to the condition of the children. Miles shows ascertain impulsiveness that borers on the predatory at times, yet Giddens does not seem to react as a woman would but more like a child, a peer, at least emotionally to him, which leaves her in a highly questionable state while taking a high view o what corruption is.

But by surfacing abuse, coercion, influence and arguably possession, the film takes excellent chances for a 1961 production. Burgeoning sexuality and displacement abound more than faded window reflections or ill-placed statues. It pervades the movie more than the threat of a fog or river.

By the denouement, one can’t feel there has been redemption, the children, the damnation of the woman, and the price of innocence proclaimed against one protected.

It is a thrilling and, at times, complicated watch, but in our current conversations. Seeing emotions and psychology being shown and not told makes it feel bold. Seek it out. But be prepared for some frights.