What with spooky season over, it’s easy to fall into the hype of the upcoming holiday season. But don’t be too quick to switch out your spiderwebs and jack-o-lanterns for menorahs and wreaths! Horror movies will continue to dominate the film industry for much of the rest of the year and the start of the next. In fact, The Turning, coming out in January of 2020, will have a modern take on the 1898 horror novella: The Turn of the Screw.
The Turn of the Screw was originally published in Collier’s Weekly magazine and told the story of a governess caring for two orphans on seemingly haunted grounds. For decades, many critics have questioned the sanity of the governess and whether or not the children actually maintain a relationship with the supernatural (if there really are any ghosts, to begin with).
However, in the 2020 adaptation, The Turning, the paranormality seems much more apparent as the trailer features ghost hands and spiders crawling out of mouths. While the novella has seen several on-screen adaptations, the most notable is the 1961 widely-respected film, The Innocents by Jack Clayton. The 2020 film will be the second major adaptation of the fictional piece and its eerie take on the old ghost story will be led under the direction of Canadian-Italian film director, Floria Sigismondi.
The film was first developed under the direction of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and within the Dreamworks label. However, in September of 2016 – mere months after it began production – Steven Spielberg decided to start the film completely anew because of script rewrites from Scott Z. Burns. He argued that it no longer resembled the movie he originally pictured and removed both Burns and Fresnadillo from the project. Once Sigismondi was set to direct the film, the title changed from Haunted to The Turning and started production – for the second time – in February of 2018, under the label of Universal Pictures.
It began to rapidly gain traction after it was announced in December of 2017 that one of the orphans would be played by It and Stranger Things star, Finn Wolfhard. After amassing over 20 million followers between Instagram and Twitter, it’s fair to say the actor has a fairly large and loyal audience that will be making their way to the theaters in time for its premiere. He’s been praised not only for his many roles in the horror genre but, according to the Collider, is “pretty excellent at being a bizarre and generally terrifying goth boy.”
Contributing to its increasing popularity, the second orphan’s role was announced only a month later with Brooklynn Prince in its place. The child actress is widely known for her part in The Florida Project and has a growing audience, herself, that is excited to see the young girl in a film outside of the comedy-drama genre.
While the jury is still out over the possible bond between the children and the ghosts in the original story, Wolfhard plays his part menacingly within the trailer, leading people to create theories regarding his connection with the supernatural as he threatens the nanny and whips the estate’s horses.
Be sure to make some hot chocolate, get cozy under the covers, and rewatch some scary movies all throughout the holiday season as you await The Turning, which hits theaters starting January 24, 2020!