The Innocents
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: December 15, 1961 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 7, 2014
Clayton brilliantly uses slow dissolves to create ghostly superimpositions, and the harmless squeals of bath-time fun, or squeakings of a pencil, suggest uncanny screams. Read full review
100
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 7, 2014
The film thrives on unsettling images of overgrowth and rot, such as the dead flower that drops at Kerr’s touch, and the beetle that crawls obscenely out of the mouth of a cherub statue. Read full review
70
TimeStaff [Not Credited]Oct 7, 2014
Director Jack (Room at the Top) Clayton, sensitively seconded by Cameraman Freddie Frances, has filled every coign and corridor with a dangerous, intelligent darkness. Moreover, the main performances are most capably carried off. Read full review
100
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeOct 7, 2014
You can watch The Innocents twice and walk away with different conclusions. Psychological horrors have imitated its ambiguous ending ever since. Few have pulled it off half as creepily. Read full review
100
Total FilmKevin HarleyOct 7, 2014
The heart-stopping climax offers no answers: just the lingering unease of uncertainty. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineMichael ScheinfeldOct 7, 2014
The Innocents manipulates the viewer's imagination as few films can, with Kerr and Redgrave doing a masterful job of creating a sense of repressed hysteria. Read full review
80
VarietyStaff [Not Credited]Oct 7, 2014
Catches an eerie, spine-chilling mood right at the start and never lets up on its grim, evil theme. Director Jack Clayton makes full use of camera angles, sharp cutting, shadows, ghost effects and a sinister soundtrack. Read full review
100
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonOct 7, 2014
Clayton's filmmaking, mustering frisson by both candle and blazing daylight, could serve as an object lesson in its genre. Read full review
60
The New York TimesBosley CrowtherOct 7, 2014
Mr. Clayton and Miss Kerr have neglected to interpret the tale and character with sufficient incisiveness and candor to give us a first-rate horror or psychological film. But they've given us one that still has interest and sends some formidable chills down the spine. Read full review
80
The DissolveTasha RobinsonOct 7, 2014
The film’s symbolism is never subtle, but that doesn’t make it any less effective. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
Clayton lacks the Jamesian temper, and his film is finally more indecisive than ambiguous. Too much Freud and too little thought. Read full review
80
The GuardianAndrew Pulver
Filmed with a luminous brilliance by cinematographer Freddie Francis, The Innocents is the apotheosis of old-school Brit spookiness. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubDavid Ehrlich
A ravishing neo-romantic takedown of Victorian repression, spooky and scathing in equal measure. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Thanks to Kerr's eloquent tremor of a performance, when the heroine witnesses apparitions, they're immediately credible to the audience. [29 May 2009, p.1C]
90
Los Angeles TimesSusan King
One of the scariest films ever made. Deborah Kerr gives one of her greatest performances as a rather high-strung governess. [15 Aug 2003, p.18]
100
The Seattle TimesJohn Hartl
A perfectly balanced adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, with Deborah Kerr in her greatest performance. [05 Dec 1997]
100
The New YorkerPauline Kael
One of the most elegantly beautiful ghost movies ever made.
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