The intentionally ambiguous plot of the film (based Henry Jame's book) is well-known. However, the script and the director of the film leave room for one more interpretation: to what extent did the two children contribute to driving the governess to the end of her wits? We are informed that all the previous governesses had left them, with the exception of the tragic miss Jessel, who committed suicide as an act of despair owning to her unfortunate love affair with the ruthless Quint. We come to witness that the children sometimes form a "clique" of some kind, against Ann: they secretly whisper to one another, laughing behind her back, rejecting her, occasionally seeing ghosts and misbehaving. The corrupt Quint-Jessel couple had indeed exerted an influence upon the orphans. They acted as wicked substitutes for their deceased parents (the boy actually blames his parents for dying!). The evil influence takes the form of ghosts to point out how crucial it was to shaping the childrens' psyche, ghosts that only Ann and the children can see (the maid's testimony is refuted due to her aberration). Their angelic innocence alternates with cruelty and an absence of limits in their upbringing. Freud's theories had already started to gain ground when the book was written disproving the notion of "childlike innocence". Proof in relation to this version is to be found in the film, which aligns with Herny Jame's style leaving scope for other interpretations.
Review of The Turn of the Screw
