The Turning: Horror Filmmaking for Dummies
Ever heard of the adage “been there, done that”? This is transposed brilliantly in Floria Sigismondi’s The Turning, a clichéd horror movie that relies strictly on a checklist of every single trope and structure of a film-school horror movie that bases itself on the book “Horror filmmaking for Dummies”. It follows one of the most important clichés of an uninspired horror movie, a dumb character. This time, she is named Kate Mandell (Mackenzie Davis) and leaves her steady teaching job to tutor a 9-year old named Flora Fairchild (Brooklynn Prince) in this shoddy-looking “château”. Everything seems to “go well”, until she meets Flora’s brother, Miles (Finn Wolfhard) who follows another cliché in the “Horror filmmaking for Dummies” book, is creepy-looking and is prone to violent, almost erratically unpredictable behavior.
The film then follows a hugely formulaic structure full of creaking doors and wooden floorboards, fake-jumpscares in which characters try to scare Kate, dream sequences full of REAL jumpscares, thunderstorms and characters making the dumbest decisions. The character of Kate and Miles are inherently unlikeable and Mackenzie Davis most likely gives the worst-ever performance of her career. Every scene involving her is either incredibly embarassing and/or cringeworthy to watch as she tries to emote the feelings of a dumb character accepting the dumbest job compared to a good, steady life, for the dumbest reasons. She likes to help people? You can help people in a classroom too by inspiring them, you know? Dumbass. She has that half-innocent face many horror movie characters have but is also inherently gullible when Miles mocks her and tries to embarass her in front of Flora and Mrs. Grose (Barbara Marten), the château’s maid. I loved Finn Wolfhard in It and in Stranger Things, but his performance in The Turning will probably be the most embarassing of his career. He tried to be scary, but his multiple emotional mood swings and his constant hate-boner on Kate makes it completely non-scary.
The entirety of The Turning isn’t scary. However, it’s the final 10–15 minutes of the movie that make it incredibly insulting for its viewers. The only redeeming quality the film has is a fun and lively performance from Brooklynn Prince who has the innocence of a child preserved until it progressively starts to destroy itself as the movie advances to its last act. When the last act begins, there are some moments of true unintentional hilarity, but as the movie slowly begins to get interesting and can actually evolve on what they’ve initially set-up, it decides to pull the “It was all a dream” card à la David Lynch in Mulholland Drive and show you what really happened, and, oh boy is it terrible. The film’s non-ending ruined an otherwise somewhat watchable but cringeworthy horror movie checking every single trope in the book “Horror filmmaking for Dummies”. Like the crap The Devil Inside, The Turning ends abruptly, leaving audience members in utter confusion (many audience members at my showing were visibly and verbally confused, a sign that they wasted their time). January strikes again — and another bomb for Universal is on its way. Don’t waste your time, skip it with fire.
½
