A young governess turns up at a country estate in Essex to care for Miles and Flora, two young orphans left in care of their absentee uncle. Soon after her tenure begins, the governess begins to see strangers walking the grounds, and interacting with the siblings in odd and disturbing ways. The governess begins to feel they are not wholly human—but rather are ghosts haunting Miles and Flora, and their influence upon the children has tragic consequences.
First published in 1898, Henry James’s sinister story of the psychological and physical effects of the malevolent figures has been adapted for film countless times, most notably as the basis for The Innocents (1961). It also served as inspiration for Alejandro Amenábar’s spectacularly eerie 2001 film The Others, starring Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccelston, and Fionnula Flanagan.
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