A lot of people like to bash Michael Winner as a director, but I've enjoyed all of his films that I have seen - until now. The Nightcomers is indefensible.
The film acts as a prequel to The Innocents (1961), which was inspired by Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. Verna Harvey and Christopher Ellis play Flora and Miles, impressionable children whose already dubious moral compass is further corrupted by roguish valet Peter Quint (Marlon Brando) and gorgeous governess Miss Jessel (Stephanie Beacham), who are having a torrid sado-masochistic affair. The children act out what they have seen and heard, dabbling in bondage before turning to murder.
Depicting youngsters performing such acts is in extremely poor taste, but that isn't this film's only crime: Brando mumbles his way through the film with a laughably cartoonish 'Oirish accent, Harvey and Ellis are terrible actors, Winner's direction is torpid, and the whole thing comes across as a pointless exercise in deliberately courting controversy. One can imagine that Ken Russell could have done it all so much better - but probably wouldn't have bothered.
2/10. Narrowly avoids getting a 1/10 rating because Beacham is such a babe.
The film acts as a prequel to The Innocents (1961), which was inspired by Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. Verna Harvey and Christopher Ellis play Flora and Miles, impressionable children whose already dubious moral compass is further corrupted by roguish valet Peter Quint (Marlon Brando) and gorgeous governess Miss Jessel (Stephanie Beacham), who are having a torrid sado-masochistic affair. The children act out what they have seen and heard, dabbling in bondage before turning to murder.
Depicting youngsters performing such acts is in extremely poor taste, but that isn't this film's only crime: Brando mumbles his way through the film with a laughably cartoonish 'Oirish accent, Harvey and Ellis are terrible actors, Winner's direction is torpid, and the whole thing comes across as a pointless exercise in deliberately courting controversy. One can imagine that Ken Russell could have done it all so much better - but probably wouldn't have bothered.
2/10. Narrowly avoids getting a 1/10 rating because Beacham is such a babe.