Critic Reviews

It may not work for everyone, but those for whom it works will find much to savor and puzzle over in The Turning.

The Turning announces Sigismondi as a bold and adept genre filmmaker, with an eye for detail and impeccable casting choices.

If The Turning leaves you screaming, it’ll probably be out of frustration over its abrupt, unsatisfying ending and not the actual frights that precede it.

Unpacking classic fiction that has already been adapted a few times, once to critical acclaim, is no easy task. Yet while it’s not completely up to the challenge, The Turning at least offers up enough moody chills and a lead in Mackenzie Davis it’s not hard to root for as the craziness builds.

Lacking spine-tingling dread, taut tension, and the deservingly provocative ending needed to make its modern sentiments land, this re-imagining is less than a classic.

In a movie as utterly lost as The Turning, everything from the performances to the production design to the music cues amount to one big pile of dirty mirrors and doll parts.

Somehow, a James novella whose subtext has been debated for over a century has been rendered almost free of subtext—and it sort of works.

The Turning is not a total loss. There are some stylish, nearly giallo-like sequences and sensitive performances from both Wolfhard and Prince, both of whom look like they could go further with their roles if the script didn’t eventually limit them to reactions in the second half.

This film makes explicit the implied sexuality in the original, which isn’t necessarily a wrong thing to do at all, but everything is very ham-fisted and crass.

As a whole, The Turning is a triumph of style over substance that might've well made for a perfectly middle of the road horror film, had it not been edited down to the point of becoming incoherent by the end.