Hallowe'en - Part One

The second part of a our Hallowe'en special. Creepy classics condensed into seventeen syllables. This time around, "The Master's" attempt at writing an M.R. James-style spine chiller.

The Turn of the Screw - by Henry James

She sees corruption

Haunt what should be innocence.

But does she? Does she?

I'll be honest here: Henry James and I have never got on. It has something to do with his prose style, which has always struck me as being soporific and prissy. It often feels as though he's holding his prose at arm's length, faintly disgusted by the desires and ideas it contains. 

Naturally there's little in the way of action, though plenty if you're content with knowing looks and value judgments on the characters of minor noblewomen.

Still, The Turn of the Screw is genuinely creepy in a slow build way. And James wasn't the brother of William James, one of the 19th century's most eminent psychologists, for nothing. He understood that suggestion is much more frightening than any number of fangs dripping gore. Even better, it brought us an undisputable classic: The Innocents.

The Innocents - starring Deborah Kerr