The Turning

An absolutely abhorrent ghost story, The Turning follows Mackenzie Davis’ Kate Mandell as she arrives at a remote country estate to care for two orphaned children (Brooklynn Prince’s Flora and Finn Wolfhard’s Miles) – with spookiness ensuing after Kate is increasingly besieged by creepy apparitions that may or may not be in her head. It’s a super generic premise that’s employed to pervasively bland and underwhelming effect by Floria Sigismondi, as the filmmaker, who has a penchant for substituting jump scares for actual frights, delivers an excessively deliberate drama that’s almost entirely devoid of dread and atmosphere – with long, interminable stretches devoted to scene after scene of one-dimensional characters exploring their dimly-lit environs (ie it’s almost shocking how little of substance actually occurs throughout the endless running time). There’s little doubt, as well, that it becomes ludicrous that Davis’ dull figure wouldn’t leave the aforementioned estate after several pointedly creepy happenings, with the utter lack of logic here certainly indicative of the slapdash nature of Carey and Chad Hayes’ thin, barely-developed screenplay. By the time the abrupt and laughably nonsensical conclusion rolls around, The Turning has certainly cemented its place as an almost uncommonly intolerable contemporary horror flick.

1/2* out of ****

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