First Look: Finn Wolfhard & Mackenzie Davis in The Turning

October 8th 2019, 3:25pm

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Universal and THE RUNAWAYS director Floria Sigismondi's 90's-set, PG-13, big-screen adaptation of author Henry James' The Turn of the Screw aka THE TURNING starring Mackenzie Davis (TERMINATOR: DARK FATE) and Finn Wolfhard (STEPHEN KING'S IT, STRANGER THINGS) hits theaters in January 2020. And today we have your first look at the film via three spooky stills. Check 'em out below!

Sigismondi says:

The Turning is based on a classic Henry James novel called The Turn of the Screw. It’s a very dark story that’s endured for over a hundred years. We’ve taken this story, and modernized it, and placed it in the 1990s. It follows a nanny who is looking [for] a life change, and when she arrives at the house she meets two orphans, Flora and Miles. They start to act a little strange and she senses that they’re harboring a secret, that they’re hiding something from her. She quickly realizes that there’s something wrong in the house.

The Turn of the Screw has been adapted several times, most notably in the upcoming second season of Netflix's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR, and Jack Clayton’s 1961 classic THE INNOCENTS.

Sigismondi adds:

I studied what worked in that film, and the atmosphere it created, and how the house became a character, and what we saw and didn’t see. I also loved how that film made it about the nanny and not just about the things that were happening in the house. So, I really drew upon those things, and modernized it, and made it my own.

As for the ’90s setting, Sigismondi explains:

I just wanted to take away the technology and really drown yourself in the environment. How cinematic is a screenshot of a phone?

The film is directed by Floria Sigismondi from a script written by Chad & Carey Hayes (THE CONJURING) along with Jade Bartlett and stars Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, Joely Richardson, and Brooklyn Prince. Roy Lee and Scott Bernstein are producing. THE TURNING hits theaters on January 24, 2020. It just snagged a PG-13 for "terror, violence, disturbing images, brief strong language, and some suggestive content."