#60 Years Later, The Innocents Is Still One Of The Scariest Films Ever Made

“The Innocents” wasn’t like other horror films of the era. Britain’s Hammer Studios had broken through in a big way several years prior with lascivious, blood-stained takes on Dracula that revived the character for a new era of movie-goers. In America, “The Twilight Zone” became a near-instant cultural phenomenon with its fable-like stories of scares and social commentary, while psychological horrors like Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and Michael Powell’s wildly controversial “Peeping Tom” incited conversations over whether movies were going too far. Things were getting bloodier, but “The Innocents” was 100% gore-free and still earned an X certificate. It was a ghost story that was simultaneously old-fashioned yet daringly modern, a period drama as lavishly detailed as any studio flick of the time but one with discomfiting levels of intimacy.

From the jump, “The Innocents” sets you on edge. For the first minute of the film, the screen is completely black as a child’s angelic voice sings a haunting lullaby called “O Willow Waly.” When the 20^th Century Fox logo finally appears, it’s almost a relief but it ensures you spend the running time feeling distinctly unnerved. As a modern horror viewer, you’re expecting jump scares or something to break the tension, and “The Innocents” denies you that at every turn. There are no jarring musical beats to punctuate a scary moment, no violent deaths or jokes to bring levity to the proceedings. Mostly, there is darkness.

20th Century Fox insisted that “The Innocents” be shot in CinemaScope, which Clayton was initially hesitant about since he didn’t feel like he could fill the vast frame. So, he made them darker, using color filters and lighting rigs that made it seem as though the actors were being consumed by the night as they walked through the bleak mansion after sundown. They even painted the edges of the lenses for interior night scenes, intensifying the claustrophobia of the governess’s plight. The contrast between this all-consuming black and the blinding white of the governess’s nightgown, the blooming roses in the garden, the fresh-faced children and their wide smiles, is beyond sharp.