Ten years after the masterpiece The Innocents debuted, The Nightcomers arrives as a prequel, exploring the characters of Quint and Jessel, who may or may not be ghosts in The Innocents and its source, The Turn of the Screw. With the original, you had a brilliant puzzle of what may be a ghost story, but which may also be a look at a sexually repressed young governess who imagines ghosts, and in attempting to destroy them, destroys the children she was charged with protecting. In making a prequel, you're bound to lose a layer- if the ghosts aren't real, the prequel can't be a ghost story too.
Instead, The Nightcomers gradually builds itself up as pure psychological horror, and one that initially seems true to the psychology of Flora and Myles. Quint is the scoundrel we heard he was, a man who doesn't believe in heaven or hell, who practices BDSM with Ms. Jessel and plays with Voodoo dolls with the children, the last of which earns Mrs. Grose's contempt. Flora and Miles gleefully watch and imitate the behaviour of their idols, coming close to incest. They appear to be older than in The Innocents. We learn Ms. Jessel's mother killed herself when she became widowed, which matches what we know is Ms. Jessel's fate.
So, given the relative faithfulness to the original characters' psychology, it's surprising that the film tinkers with the end, turning Jessel and Quint's deaths into murder by the children. Jessel's death looks like what it was supposed to be, a drowning, but that was supposed to happen after Quint's death. And there's no way Quint with an arrow in his head is going to be mistaken for a broken neck after slipping on ice. We know Flora and Miles were never fully innocents, but turning them into full-fledged murderers before the new governess arrives on the scene seems to be a bit too much, too fast. Still, The Nightcomers, by itself, is an interesting story.
Instead, The Nightcomers gradually builds itself up as pure psychological horror, and one that initially seems true to the psychology of Flora and Myles. Quint is the scoundrel we heard he was, a man who doesn't believe in heaven or hell, who practices BDSM with Ms. Jessel and plays with Voodoo dolls with the children, the last of which earns Mrs. Grose's contempt. Flora and Miles gleefully watch and imitate the behaviour of their idols, coming close to incest. They appear to be older than in The Innocents. We learn Ms. Jessel's mother killed herself when she became widowed, which matches what we know is Ms. Jessel's fate.
So, given the relative faithfulness to the original characters' psychology, it's surprising that the film tinkers with the end, turning Jessel and Quint's deaths into murder by the children. Jessel's death looks like what it was supposed to be, a drowning, but that was supposed to happen after Quint's death. And there's no way Quint with an arrow in his head is going to be mistaken for a broken neck after slipping on ice. We know Flora and Miles were never fully innocents, but turning them into full-fledged murderers before the new governess arrives on the scene seems to be a bit too much, too fast. Still, The Nightcomers, by itself, is an interesting story.