| Film vitals |
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· Year: 1989
· Writers: Maggie Wadey, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
· Cast: Stephen Dillane, Julia Watson
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| Series info |
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· Based on the story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
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| Links |
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| Synopsis |
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A family rents a house for the summer, and one member--a young wife and mother--finds that there is something "not right" about the room which she and her husband inhabit.--Guinnevere
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RATING
Out of 100 |
80
See review
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| COLD ANALYSIS |
| ATMOSPHERE |
| GORE |
| HUMOR |
| SCARES |
| TENSION |
This version was made for television by the BBC, and it only gets a C+ grade from me. The reason for such a low rating is its Very Earnest and Politically Correct Feminist tone, which was treated with much more subtlety in the same-titled story, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, on which the film is based.
The story is one of psychological horror (my favorite kind!), which has its root in the ever-popular question: are the haunting phenomena being caused by a real ghost, or by the deranged imagination of the narrating character? It has this in common with Henry James's The Turn Of the Screw, but unlike the gorgeous film version of that story, The Innocents, this film "cheats" its audience of the chance to make up its own mind, by flat-footedly telling us what to think. The film takes its point of view from explanatory material written by the author after the story had been published, which is valuable to have as background information, but which spoils the storytelling in the film fully as much as a murder mystery is spoiled by stating up front, "the butler did it."
Basically, I loved the printed story, but only mildly liked the film version.
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