The Turn of the Screw has been the subject of a range of adaptations and reworkings in a variety of media. Many of these have, themselves, been analysed in the academic literature on Henry James and neo-Victorian culture.[65]
Stage
The novella was adapted to an opera by Benjamin Britten, which premiered in 1954,[65] and the opera has been filmed on multiple occasions.[66] The novella was adapted as a ballet score (1980) by Luigi Zaninelli,[67] and separately as a ballet (1999) by Will Tucket for the Royal Ballet.[68] Harold Pinter directed The Innocents (1950), a Broadway play which was an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw.[69] An adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher, using the title The Turn of the Screw, premiered in Portland, Maine, in 1996 and was produced off-Broadway in 1999.[70] Another adaptation of the same title by Rebecca Lenkiewicz was presented in a co-production with Hammer at the Almeida Theatre, London, in January 2013.[71]
Films
There have been numerous film adaptations of the novel.[67] The critically acclaimed The Innocents (1961), directed by Jack Clayton, and Michael Winner's prequel The Nightcomers (1972) are two notable examples.[65] Other feature film adaptations include Rusty Lemorande's 1992 eponymous adaptation (set in the 1960s);[72] Eloy de la Iglesia's Spanish language Otra vuelta de tuerca (The Turn of the Screw, 1985);[67] Presence of Mind (1999), directed by Atoni Aloy; and In a Dark Place (2006), directed by Donato Rotunno.[66] The Others (2001) is not an adaptation but has some themes in common with James's novella.[66][73] In 2018, director Floria Sigismondi filmed an adaptation of the novella, titled The Turning, on the Kilruddery Estate in Ireland.[74]
Television films have included a 1959 American adaptation as part of Ford Startime directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Ingrid Bergman;[66][75] the West German Die sündigen Engel (The Sinful Angel, 1962),[76] a 1974 adaptation directed by Dan Curtis, adapted by William F. Nolan;[66] a French adaptation entitled Le Tour d'écrou (The Turn of the Screw, 1974); a Mexican miniseries entitled Otra vuelta de tuerca (The Turn of the Screw, 1981);[76] a 1982 adaptation directed by Petr Weigl primarily starring Czech actors lip-synching;[77] a 1990 adaptation directed by Graeme Clifford; The Haunting of Helen Walker (1995), directed by Tom McLoughlin; a 1999 adaptation directed by Ben Bolt;[66] a low-budget 2003 version written and directed by Nick Millard; the Italian-language Il mistero del lago (The Mystery of the Lake, 2009); and a 2009 BBC film adapted by Sandy Welch, starring Michelle Dockery, Dan Stevens and Sue Johnston.[76] A Brazilian movie named Através da Sombra (Through the Shadow, 2015) was released, heavily influenced by the book, only changing the characters' names and location to make it feel like it is set in Brazil.[78]
Literature
Literary references to and influences by The Turn of the Screw identified by the James scholar Adeline R. Tintner include The Secret Garden (1911), by Frances Hodgson Burnett; "Poor Girl" (1951), by Elizabeth Taylor; The Peacock Spring (1975), by Rumer Godden; Ghost Story (1975) by Peter Straub; "The Accursed Inhabitants of House Bly" (1994) by Joyce Carol Oates; and Miles and Flora (1997)—a sequel—by Hilary Bailey.[79] Further literary adaptations identified by other authors include Affinity (1999), by Sarah Waters; A Jealous Ghost (2005), by A. N. Wilson;,[80] Florence & Giles (2010), by John Harding,[65] and Maybe This Time (2010) by Jennifer Crusie.[81] Young adult novels inspired by The Turn of the Screw include The Turning (2012) by Francine Prose[82] and Tighter (2011) by Adele Griffin.[83] Ruth Ware's 2019 novel The Turn of the Key sets the story in the 21st century.[84]
Television
The Turn of the Screw has also influenced television.[85] In December 1968, the ABC daytime drama Dark Shadows featured a storyline based on The Turn of the Screw. In the story, the ghosts of Quentin Collins and Beth Chavez haunted the west wing of Collinwood, possessing the two children living in the mansion. The story led to a year-long story in the year 1897, as Barnabas Collins travelled back in time to prevent Quentin's death and stop the possession.[85] In early episodes of Star Trek: Voyager ("Cathexis", "Learning Curve" and "Persistence of Vision"), Captain Kathryn Janeway is seen on the holodeck acting out scenes from the holonovel Janeway Lambda one, which appears to be based on The Turn of the Screw.[86] In 2020, Netflix adapted the novella as The Haunting of Bly Manor for the second season of Mike Flanagan's The Haunting anthology series.[87][88]
