The Innocents review (Blu-ray) ★★★★★

It's really quite amazing how Blu-ray breathes new life into black and white films from long ago. Classics you've watched over and over are reinvented with a good high definition remaster and provide the experience of rediscovering your favourites once again. With Jack Clayton's The Innocents, one of the greatest supernatural horrors of all time, this is most certainly the case. Blu-ray takes a stunningly visual film to begin with and makes it a thing of pure beauty.

Based on The Turn of the Screw, the novella by Henry James, as well as, in part, William Archibald's stage adaptation that he personally named The Innocents, this Jack Clayton-directed masterpiece from 1961 is a wondrously shot, innovative and mesmerising film that never seizes to chill you to the bone. Revolving around a spectacular country mansion, a governess (Kerr) is sent from London to look after two young children whose uncle is too busy in the capital city to care for them. What starts out as a very pleasant stay for Kerr's character as she takes the role of mother to the boy and girl, rather swiftly breaks down into a haunting and mystery-shrouded nightmare. The children begin to act strangely and all signs point to possession by deceased tenants as the dark past of the house is revealed to the governess.

The Innocents is truly a film that you could adequately study frame-by-frame. Not a single shot is wasted; each one has incredible substance and meaning. There aren't many movies made today that you can say that about, especially in the horror genre, and such a great number of them choose to heighten the effect of their cinematography by using digital effects. Back in the days of The Innocents' production, in-camera techniques requiring a lot of thought, skill and innovation were all that you had. To fully appreciate such a film is to appreciate every frame, and with this marvellous picture, you can really can. This is a must for any aspiring or even working film-maker, whether it be in photography or even screenwriting, as the film boasts an excellent script penned mostly by Truman Capote, who brings a realistically Victorian quality to the dialogue.

The movie has some of the most creative uses of light that I've ever seen, not to mention the combinations of lighting and shots. At a few points the camera actually had its edges literally taped off to give the appearance of a tunnel of light in the frame. It's magical film-making that lends itself perfectly to the frightening story, where you are constantly questioning the characters thanks to its magnificent ambiguity. Are the children possessed? Is the governess imagining all the ghostliness? Interpret. Discuss.

If you call yourself a horror fan but have not yet seen The Innocents, you're quite frankly missing a vital piece from your collection. And if you already own the DVD, grab the Blu-ray and enjoy this eerie black and white masterpiece in a whole new, refreshing way.

EXTRAS ★★?? 25-minute introduction by Professor Christopher Frayling; an audio commentary by Frayling; original US trailer; Clayton's rare and previously unseen 1944 film, Naples is a Battlefield (13 minutes); his first film as director, which won him an Oscar, The Bespoke Overcoat, from 1955 (33 minutes); a narrated stills and clips gallery of press materials and costume designs, all given new life in high definition; and an illustrated booklet featuring notes on the film written by The League of Gentlemen's Jeremy Dyson. An excellent collector's set containing plenty of rare features that only really lacks a documentary.