Robert J. Maxwell It's always hard to do a remake or adaptation of a classic like Henry James' "Turn of the Screw." The director, actors, and crew must transpose a lot of printed words into visual images and sound. It ain't easy.The performers can do a lot to add realism to the movie. Diana Rigg, for instance, is the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, and without seeming to do so she turns a dull and unimaginative old lady into a human being by the pitch and stress of her voice and by occasional sideways glances that aren't in the novella but which suggest she's smarter than she looks.Valerie Bertinelli does a TV version of the heroine, Helen Walker, who was unnamed in the original. She's not bad, considering the challenge presented by a display of creeping madness.But cast and crew aside, there's another element to be considered -- the intended audience, whose nature will help structure and color the narrative. Any movie is a joint project between the producers and the consumers. In this instance, the producers have presented the audience with a kind of Rorschach ink blot and the viewers have to decide, among other things, whether or not it's a picture of a crazy lady.The intended audience is the TV viewer looking for something interesting but not too demanding. "The Haunting of Helen Walker" fills the bill. It's not too demanding. For example the governess is given a name right off the bat because it make writing the screenplay easier and it doesn't prompt the audience to wonder if her name was left out by mistake.Most of the better-done stories of threats and danger take a while to build up tense anticipation. We don't get a look at Bruce the Shark until half-way through "Jaws," and the same with "King Kong." The mysterious and evil figure in "The Third Man" has about fifteen minutes of screen time towards the end. In "The Turn of the Screw" evil is represented by two not-quite-real figures who are only gradually insinuated into the tale. But in "The Haunting of Helen Walker," with an impatient audience in mind, the producers give us the first supernatural shock at ten minutes into the story. (The second comes ten minutes later.) Between eerie incidents, the movie lets us see the governess daydreaming about the handsome young master of the country estate, whom we see only briefly at the start. James let us infer her yearning for a suitable husband.I've been kind of harsh on "The Haunting of Helen Walker" but it's not a bad movie. They haven't taken a meat ax to James' ghost story. It gets more confusing towards the end, almost hysterical. I don't know what James had in mind. Is she nuts or not? Maybe all James wanted to do was write a chilling tale about ghosts and such.

atinder The Haunting of Helen Walker (1995)Now this what you call a good chiller, I really enjoyed it, it dose take long to get to the creepy parts, they worked really well. There are to far apart from each other and they not just there for one Jump scenes, you see this ghost for more then 20's seconds. I loved the Raining window scenes was really well shot and very creepy how movie was fixed on that the whole time, The Kid in this movie was creepy but I think they were a little to cute to laugh like that. I really enjoyed this movie, I know it updated version Turn of the Screw (There are few of these out there) The acting was outstanding from the whole cast and Kids were great too I going to give this movie 8 out of 10

eashmore09 Bit of a yawn I'm afraid, but then Deborah Kerr's, "THE INNOCENTS"is a hard act to follow. That has the advantage of being shot in stunning black and white for starters which I think creates an eerie, unsettling atmosphere throughout which this colour version fails to do. Yes I may have jumped at one point but at no time was there anything to send a real chill down my spine. The subtle, ghostly appearances in "THE INNOCENTS" were much more effective in achieving that in my opinion. I wish I could be more positive in my review of "The Haunting of Helen Walker" as it started well and engaged me. I was really hoping for something a bit special. I cannot fault the acting and overall production, but it just simply looked too glossy and lacked atmosphere for my liking, but at least I saw it through to the end.

helpless_dancer This was worse than a Harlequin romance novel: the only good part was the old castle and the surrounding landscape. Hammy, overdone rehash of every 2 bit ghostly/old manse film that's ever been done. It provided rain, lightning, dim corridors, haunting music, candles blowing out, spectral beings, and on and on and on all the way to the 'creepy' finale. Valerie should have stayed home and let Eddie bring home the bacon.