"Do You Have an Imagination?"
"Do you have an imagination?" With that question opens the very best horror film ever made. No other ghost story can touch it, not even "The Haunting" or "The Uninvited," although both of those are absolutely first-rate films. But "The Innocents" is even better. It is based on the novella "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James, and the screenplay is by Truman Capote, so the viewer is assured of an excellent story. This ghost story has everything. It is shot on location in a large country house in England. It's in black and white because color would have prevented the spooky atmosphere that the director achieved with much of the screen in deep shadow in many scenes. And yet, the apparently normal surroundings and ordinary domestic situation in which the action takes place serve to heighten the viewer's sense of mystery when decidedly "un-normal" things start to happen--the first one outdoors in broad daylight. Relating any of the story line, however sketchily, would detract from the viewer's enjoyment, so I close by simply repeating the question with which the story opens: "Do you have an imagination?"