The Turning: A Review with Spoilers

It was terrible.

First off, the trailer.  The trailer made it seem like it was a movie about evil kids torturing and murdering nannies.  It wasn’t.  They spliced bits of dialogue out of context to sell a different movie than what it actually was.

So it was a mystery… that was never solved.  It was a ghost story, or maybe she was just crazy… but we never find out which.

The ending was supposed to be all plot twist like M. Night Shyamalan, but it was just confusing.

If she was crazy, that means all the ghost stuff was in her head.  But then the director seriously fucked that up.  Because there were haunting things that she didn’t see, that were only seen by the kids or sometimes just by the audience.  If it was all in her head, everything should have been seen by her.  A mannequin turning it’s head after she leaves the room, where only we the audience can see, is not in her head.

It feels like the director filmed the whole film, then made up the ending at the last minute, and forgot everything he previously filmed.  It was lazy directing.

Even the kid from Stranger Things couldn’t save this film.

Also, the writing was terrible and the acting was terrible.

I’m not a film hater.  Unlike a lot of fanboys, I actually love movies.  Even the ones everyone hates.   I liked Batman V. Superman.  I liked the Star Wars prequels.  But this movie actually made me angry.   I felt like the director wasted my time.  I tried to be invested in this mystery, despite the film being boring, and in the end, there was no payoff.  It was like I was sucker punched in my brain.

Don’t watch this movie.  Don’t rent it.  Don’t stream it.  Don’t catch it on cable.  You have better things to do, like counting ceiling tiles.