The Innocents - An Involuntarily Brilliant Subversion Game I REVIEW

The Innocents - An Involuntarily Brilliant Subversion Game I REVIEW

(Mild Spoilers)

By 

Ainsoph

How incredibly moody this was even for the time. Truly good movie was a good movie yesterday, it is a good today, and it will be so tomorrow.

This movie stands as an involuntary clash between by the books classicness we’ve seen a million times, and some actually bluntly perverse and fascinating material. 

By “classic” i mean that aura of intrigue around (very cliche) things that instantly do not seem alright, like a scary big mansión, a suspicious housemaid, and creepy twin children. Intrigue that in the end, of course, turns out to be spot on. Yet it was all better presented and resolved than i thought it would be. 

Its all a game of expectation vs subversion, interestingly there is also an thematic motif of subjectivity vs objectivity present in the film, which speaking of, that is another fascinating component in here; its motifs stay consistent even at not entirely voluntary places:

The film has an extremely formal Hollywood golden age tinge: the characters dress, speak and conduct themselves as perfectly as if they all came from a rich household. That is this films gorgeous presentation wrap in a nutshell. A clean-polished reliq from what i think they call the “gentleman era” in the United States. Might this be what conservatives mean when they say society has become impolite? 

It is this same formality, along with the previously mentioned classicism, which working as a facade led me to believe the film would never get into the weeds of obscure paranormal activity and its consequences nor to engage with the story as much as i did. 

True talk, the classic elemment can be very overwhelming and work to the storys disadvantage, specially during the first half, which is very by the books and predictable:

X person is sent on an unsuspecting quest to a remote location, unsuspecting of the terror that awaits them. All is nice and pretty at first, but then things get creepy… Something looks fishy right away, and it turns out it is. The classic scare triumphs.

A sunday afternoon horror story that by 2023, we’ve seen its same structure done a billon times, and i don't think it was exactly new even by the year this film came out. 

The formality makes things prettier, but also harder to connect with it can keep modern viewers from truly taking the story at hearth, yet mixed in here there is also a deeply interesting, surprisingly blunt for the time and at occasions intrinsic film. i love how seriously the paranormal elemment was taken and the weight it had on everything. 

Overwhelming clasicism and all, original or not, this remains a lovely supernatural horror mystery, always gorgeous to look upon. 

The montage is nice and purposeful. The shot composition was fantastic, very well used, and amazing looking frames.

Those multilayered shots were great; I loved how the shots were coordinated according to the movement of the actors and the scenography. A process worthy of being called great “directing”. I also loved the impressionist-esque intro and outro. 

There is very little of those stupid ugly insert-shots and closeups. Almost the entire film achieves a beautiful visual harmony through and through, this is very weird to come by. 

Directing, cinematography, production design, this film scores an A+ on all those, its top golden age Hollywood craftsmanship. The child actors also were quite fantastic to be honest. 

Through its surprising darkness, a well-told mystery and sheer virtue of craft, The Innocents far outweighs the constrictions of unbended genredom. 

8.0/10

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