"Woman, what is your problem?" That is the single thought that kept bouncing around in my head as I watched "The Turning." It was turning me into an angry viewer.

"The Turning" is a movie based upon the book "The Turn of the Screws" by Henry James. Per Wikipedia--the most factual content on the internet...(snicker)--"His novella The Turn of the Screw has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media." The key word is "ambiguous."

"The Turning" started off strong. The year was 1994 and Kurt Cobain had just died. We had a bright young woman named Kate Mandell (Mackenzie Davis) who had just been hired as a tutor for a young girl named Flora (Brooklynn Prince). Flora was an effervescent little girl with a cute voice and cute smile. Flora's brother Miles (Finn Wolfhard) on the other hand was something entirely different. Besides being mean, disrespectful, and rude, he was borderline psychopathic. The palatial estate Kate was to be staying at was a massive older estate like something from the antebellum east coast.

Kate had problems right away with Miles. It wasn't enough to make alarm bells go off, but enough to irritate you. What should have made the alarm bells go off was when Miles and Flora tricked Kate into believing that Flora was drowning. Kate dove into a cold pool in the middle of the night just for their cheap giggles. At that point I would have left. They can find another tutor that is OK with being the back of very serious practical jokes. But no, Kate stayed on the property either as a plot device to give us a movie or out of some moronic sense of commitment.

If that twisted joke wasn't enough to make her run off, then the next big brouhaha should've been. Kate had already been having repeated problems with Miles and he didn't hide his disdain for her. On top of that she was seeing paranormal activity which was enough to give any sane person reason to flee. The final straw should have been when she attempted to take the two kids to town. Before she could leave the grounds Flora flipped out and screamed for Kate to stop the car. Miles' next statement was "Stop the car or I will kill you!"

That's all I needed to hear. I am outta here. Find another adult punching bag. I'm not waiting around to find out if you're serious. Yet, this is where the movie got truly aggravating. If you are a viewer like me who has little patience for people doing stupid and unnecessary things in a scary movie, then you would have been equally frustrated. Kate was not a prisoner. This wasn't her family and we knew very little backstory about her to motivate her to stay. In other words, besides a promise to a little girl, there was no reason for her to stay at the estate and take further abuse. But stay she did and claw at my own face in irritation I did.

Kate sank deeper and deeper into a state of fear and unrest and it was written all over her face. With each passing minute and each occurrence I devolved further into a state of angst as I could only silently yell, "Get a clue and get the heck out!"

Then, as the plot seemed to be finally revealing itself we got the most ambiguous ending you could possibly imagine. This wasn't like "Inception" where you're left to wonder if he was dreaming or not, or "No Country for Old Men" where you're left wondering if he killed the girlfriend or not, this was like nothing I can think of where you don't know what in the world was going on. I was totally confused. Are there ghosts, are there not, is she crazy, is she not? What just happened? We just went on this 90 minute psychedelic trip and suddenly woke up and nothing is in focus. Such a let down.

I really wanted to give it three stars, but going over my notes plus how the movie felt - not justified. Positives: Unfortunately, there are none. Except they mentioned Kurt Cobain which had nothing to do w/anything, and not mentioned again. Negatives: Always a sign of cheapness is an opening (twice in this case) overhead view of a car on road. Heavily dependent on the overused, stereotypical, music & sound effects to startle you. Yawn. The usual ghostly apparitions in mirrors, windows, and in background. Very uncreative, and cheap looking. The usual isolated mansion/house w/lots of rooms w/stuff, and usual dark basement. And, a maze garden. A brief scene of a creepy tree which had no bearing on anything. Supposedly scary scenes in which our future victim has portending nightmares, and of course we don't know they're just dreams. Future victim, unfortunately in this genre is female, does not respond intelligently to what's going on. Ending, and alternative ending which was worse, was one of those "viewer decides" could be anything.

Kate Mandell (Mackenzie Davis) takes on the job of tutoring Flora Fairchild (Brooklynn Prince) at an English estate. She is constantly harassed by Flora's older brother Miles (Finn Wolfhard). Caretaker Mrs. Grose (Barbara Marten) tells her that Flora is haunted by the death of her parents.

This sets up a good moody horror and it has some good actors. After setting everything up, the plot basically stops moving and developing. It feels stuck in place and the story becomes a muddle. Then the movie truly stops in a confused abrupt ending. The style is like an old horror ghost story which is intriguing. If only, the story would flow better than this.