Jack Clayton’s atmospheric ghost story is one of the most chilling and disturbing horror films ever made. Based on William Archibald’s stage adaptation of Henry James’s classic novella “The Turn of the Screw”, the screenplay was written by Truman Capote. At the time it was released, it didn’t garner much of an audience, but it has gone on to be a cult classic, listed as one of the best British films ever made and one of the scariest horror films of all time.
Academy Award winning cinematographer, Freddie Francis (Elephant Man, Sons and Lovers) utililized wide angle lenses, stark lighting and deep focus to emphasize the classic haunted house atmosphere of the mansion at Sheffield Park in Sussex they used as a shooting location. And beautifully composed widescreen Cinemascope framing kept the audience peering into the corners of shots to see what was lurking in the shadows.
The film focuses on two children, and the director, Jack Clayton didn’t want their performances to be overly informed so he edited the copies of the scripts he gave them, removing a lot of the explanation of what was going on in the scenes. This technique resulted in some of the most layered and disturbing performances by children in the entire history of filmmaking.
The most interesting aspect of this film is the subtlety of the way the story is told. The tension builds to a devastating climax, but the audience is left not knowing exactly what happened at first. As you think about the ending of the film afterwards, the realization of the situation will come to you and you’ll experience a second chill of fear, long after the lights have come back up.
This very special screening will be held at 7pm on March 24th, 2012. We will be projecting a newly restored high definition Cinemascope bluray that was just released in Europe. Our screening room is located in Pacoima, CA. The Animation Creative League meetings are by invitation only. To request an invite, contact Taber Dunnipace at…
creativeleague@animationarts.org
If you can bring refreshments, please do. Confirmations will go out well in advance of the screening. Make sure you let us know if you can’t make it so we can offer your space to another person.
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