In a Dark Place

Infobox Film
name = In a Dark Place


image_size =
director = Donato Rotunno
starring = Leelee Sobieski
Tara Fitzgerald
Christian Olson Gabrielle Adam
Graham Pountney
Jonathan Fox
released = 2006
runtime = 95 min
country = Luxembourg / UK
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0460435

"In a Dark Place" is a 2006 horror/thriller film version of Henry James' 1898 novella "The Turn of the Screw".

Plot Summary

Anna Veigh, an over the top art teacher, is finding work at her inner city special school a tougher psychological challenge than she can cope with. The offer of a new post after being released and sexually assaulted by her employer when found consuming paint, is given the opportunity to mind two wealthy young orphans whilst their wealthy mysterious uncle is away on business seems a perfect escape for her. It is a welcome escape.

Her new workplace is Bly House, a remote country estate with beautiful grounds and a small resident staff. Miles and Flora, the children, seem sweet and charming, if a little strange, and Anna thinks that she has really "landed on her feet" after the rigors of her previous job. The only fly in the ointment is the frosty estate manager, Miss Grose, who seems remote and unfriendly to the new arrival.

Anna soon begins to make disquieting discoveries. Miles, the boy, has been expelled from his school, for a sin so dreadful the headmaster will not even discuss it. Anna hears whispers through the night often leading towards Flora's bedroom. Anna then learns that her predecessor in the job, one Miss Jessel, drowned in a lake on the property. Her lover, Mr. Quint, hanged himself in Bly House shortly thereafter. The children continue to commit devilish seeming acts, that lead her to question the children. To add to her unease, Anna begins to catch glimpses of unknown sinister figures lurking in the grounds, but nobody else admits to seeing them. Anna seems to cope with these problems by bathing frequently and roaming the house in her revealing housecoat.

Anna confronts Miss Grose with her suspicions about the intruders and is surprised learn that Ms. Grose had hated Mr. Quint for stealing her lesbian lover, Miss Jessel. The figures Anna describes are unmistakably Miss Jessel and Mr. Quint, but these former employees have been dead for some time. Anna has recuring daydreams concerning her own abuse as a child, and she soon suspects that Mr. Quint and Miss Jessel may have physically abused Miles and Flora as well.

As Anna's ghost sightings and fears for the children's safety become more pronounced, Miss Grose begins to doubt Anna's sanity and fires her from her post. As Anna reveals some affection for the estate manager, Miss Grose reconsiders and begins to passionately kiss Anna. While they later sleep together that evening, it is apparent on Anna's face that she is shocked by the estate manager's physical attention and feels that she is again being abused just as when she was a child. It seems as if Anna is being sexually abused by every character in the movie, highlighting her disturbing childhood.

Eventually, the children grow more and more fearful and sullen around Anna. Anna's hallucinations and emotional breakdown continue, and Miss Grose once again tells her to leave. Anna frequently visits the lake that Miss Jessel had supposedly drowned in yet tells the children not to go there. She seems possessed and has frequent sightings of Jessel there. After some strange behaviour on the children's part and Anna's, it is unclear what exactly is going on. That evening, Flora has a severe fear-induced asthma attack and is taken away by ambulance, never to be seen again. Miles runs away, and before accompanying Flora to the hospital, Miss Grose makes Anna promise to call her as soon as Miles is found.

Anna finds and chases the frightened Miles about the estate believing that only she can rescue him from the ghosts' attentions. As she corners him at the lake where Miss Jessel drowned, Miles in a sense walks the plank slowly forcing himself into the water and drops from the log into the shallow creek-like puddle where Jessel's previous body parts had been shown, there is no struggle. Anna tells him that he will now be free of his suffering and that what happened between them will remain a secret. It is suggested that Anna had been physically abusing Miles and Flora just as she had been abused as a child herself, but the truth is no one really knows, if she is insane and imagining these images or being harassed by ghostly figures. Then without any real explanation or even implication, her face suddenly turns into one of a monster's as she repeatedly says "I'm the only one" We are left questioning if her mind was in fact the "dark place" or if in fact the house was truly haunted.

Cast

*Leelee Sobieski as Anna Veigh
*Tara Fitzgerald as Ms. Grose
*Christian Olsonas Miles
*Gabrielle Adam as Flora
*Graham Pountney as Mr. James
*Jonathan Fox as Mr. Laing
*Thomas Sanne as Headmaster