Uncertainty is good for horror. What could be out there in the dark? Did I just see that thing move? Is there something really scary going on, or is it all in the main character’s head?
But there is a line, and “The Turning” steps over it. People like to be scared, but they also want stories to end, even if the endings are sad. The horror movie by Floria Sigismondi is about a young nanny named Kate (Mackenzie Davis) who moves to the huge and probably haunted Fairchild Estate to take care of two orphans, Miles (Finn Wolfhard) and Flora (Brooklynn Prince). The movie doesn’t really have an ending. It just stops, leaving people to think about the strange images at the end of the movie.
There isn’t enough information in “The Turning” to say for sure what happened right before the credits rolled, but if you look around, you can piece together an answer that’s at least somewhat satisfying. You just have to put in the effort. Don’t be afraid. If like everyone else, you were confused by how “The Turning” ended, we’re here to help.
What Is The Plot Of The Turning on Showtime?
The Turn of the Screw, which was written by Henry James in 1898, is the source for The Turning, and many of its themes are the same. A governess for two bad-behaving rich orphans goes crazy after the kids tease her, she starts seeing ghosts, and she can’t seem to get away from the scary place where they live. Mackenzie Davis plays Kate Mandell, the governess in this version of the story. Flora Fairchild, played by Brooklynn Prince, and her mischievous teen brother Miles are her charges (Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things fame).
Kate feels alone and out of place as soon as she arrives at the large family estate where the children live with their caretaker, the rude Mrs. Grose (Barbara Marten). There is a creepy mannequin of the family matriarch in her bedroom, and there are bumps and mumbles in the night. She has to start sleeping with the lights on to get rid of all the bad energy. That doesn’t work. The kids start playing jokes on her, Mrs. Grose ignores her, and to top it all off, Kate starts to see a ghostly woman walking around the grounds of the mansion.
Kate finds out that the ghost is her former boss, Miss Jessel, who disappeared in a mysterious way. She also finds out that Quint, who taught the Fairchild kids to ride horses, was a real jerk who made Miss Jessel’s life a living hell. He, too, has died, and Kate starts to see him in mirrors, visions, and dreams.
She’s basically going crazy, and she has no one she can turn to for help. Darla, her mother (Joely Richardson), is locked up in a mental hospital, so she can’t even call her. Kate does get some strange paintings from Darla, but they don’t help her calm down. Do the ghosts in the Fairchild mansion want Kate to join them? Or is she “losing her mind”? The movie wants you to make a decision.
The Payoff: So, what’s going on with The Turning Ending?
Kate can’t sleep and is getting more and more stressed out. When she does fall asleep, she has nightmares about her current life, like chasing Miles on a horse through the dark estate grounds or seeing other faces over her own in a mirror. Kate also finds Miss Jessel’s diary, which has a broken account of how Quint hurt her both mentally and physically. Flora and Miles are getting more arrogant and withdrawn by the day, and Kate’s sanity is getting further away from her.
Mrs. Grose gets in a shot when Kate gets a package from her mother with some scary paintings in it. “Whatever your mom has, let’s hope it’s not something you get from her.” Then, we follow Kate as she sees wet footprints on the parquet floor of her room and runs outside to find Miss Jessel’s ghost, only to find her dead body in a pond. Not only that, but she sees what looks like the ghost of Quint attack the ghost of Jessel before he turns his creepy wraith self on her. Kate runs into Mrs. Grose, who is yelling. Ghost Quint throws Mrs. Grose off a balcony and she falls to her death. Just wait, that’s not how it works.
Because The Turning suddenly jumps back to Kate looking at her mother’s paintings, and her desperate attempt to get away from all the ghost violence was also just in her head. She doesn’t know which way is up anymore, and when everyone in the house seems to be against her — “the only one terrorizing around here is you” — Kate seems to start thinking that they might be right. After Flora and Miles have one last fight, the camera moves into Kate’s eye. A version of herself gets out of bed and walks up to a person who looks like her mother. In a way that is common in horror movies, the figure is hunched over her drawings and scratching at them.
Kate screams as the figure spins around to face her. Is this the last step on Kate’s path to madness, or just more ghostly tricks? The Turning decides to be rude and keep its secrets to itself.
The film’s finale is clarified by the filmmaker.
Films with ambiguous conclusions tend to spark the most heated discussions. Fans will argue passionately to claim that their interpretation of the film is the only valid one. People on Reddit are still trying to piece out what happened to Kate in “The Turning,” and their speculations are piling up.
Floria Sigismondi, the film’s director, has said. Although she told Collider that the conclusion of “The Turning” was meant to provoke debate, she did provide her own definitive interpretation, which, given that Sigismondi directed the film, is probably the most correct. What she meant was that “you’re stuck with this trauma that you’re living with,” and that was the central theme of the book. “I don’t want to get into detail, though. I opted to change the ending of the film from the novel because I wanted it to be fresh and unexpected. I aimed to write a more touching narrative in which Kate is redeemed.” That settles it; the riddle has been answered.
