It's an odd feeling when you enjoy a film that everyone else seemingly hated. You feel like you missed something (or saw something that wasn't there to see). While I wouldn't go anywhere near as far as to say I loved 'The Turning', or even that is remotely without fault, I would suggest that an IMDb score of 3.7/10 is a crime.

The film is based on the novella 'The Turning of the Screw' which I have never read, nor seen any adaptions of. So this was all new to me. The opening scene in the movie is pretty weak and doesn't get things off to a good start. I say it was weak only because it cuts off so abruptly. It was actually building quite nicely to that point. The opening scene of a horror movie is incredibly important to set the tone for what is to come, so I wish they had extended this a little and made it have more of an impact.

Then early on in the film came a jump-scare that completely caught me off-guard and gave me a genuine jolt. It's very rare that a jump-scare catches me by surprise any more, so I have to give the film props for that. Then in the next 5 minutes of runtime they tried about 3-4 more jump scares (a truly odd little cluster of them) and obviously they had no impact because the audience is ready and waiting for them by that point. A little bit of inexperience perhaps showing through from director Floria Sigismondi.

Something that really surprised me in this film was the quality of the acting. I make no secret of the fact that I find 95% of child actors very annoying to watch. This film had two of them, Finn Wolfhard and Brooklynn Prince, and both were extremely easy to watch. Take into consideration that the characters they were playing were supposed to be unlikeable and annoying and that makes it even more impressive. Also Mackenzie Davis in the lead role thoroughly impressed me. This is one of the stronger acted horror movies I have seen in recent times.

There is a good atmosphere maintained throughout the film, and it all builds towards the ending. I loved the ending. People seem to hate it from what I'm reading, but for me it was the strongest point of the film. It requires some thinking (I had to go back and watch it again to make sure I had it right) but all the clues are there if you're willing to look hard enough. I think people just don't want to think. They want everything handed to them on a silver spoon.

It annoys me when audiences hate horror films that try to mix up the formula and do something different, because that is the reason we keep getting the same old stuff over and over again. You can't complain about every horror movie being the same old thing, but then hate on any movie that tries to do something unique as well. I enjoyed 'The Turning' and would recommend it.

Like throw popcorn at the screen when it is over bad. I cannot stress this enough- this movie is HORRIBLE.

They had the actors, they had the budget, they had everything except the ending.. the final 10 minutes are just terrible, explainable and the worst of all is that you don't get the feeling of wanting to explain it.. it's just a terrible ending.