[4] It stars Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, Brooklynn Prince, and Joely Richardson, and follows a young governess in 1994 who is hired to watch over two children after their parents are killed.

[6] Miss Jessel, the live-in tutor at the Fairchild Estate, flees the house in a panic and is attacked by a ragged man.

At the Fairchild Estate, Kate is informed by the caretaker Mrs. Grose that Flora witnessed her parents die in a car accident and is a "special case".

Mrs. Grose tells her that Quint died a couple weeks following Miss Jessel's departure when he fell from his horse while riding drunk.

[8] The film adaptation went through two phases of production: first as Haunted with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo attached as director, then the ultimate version, renamed as The Turning, with Floria Sigismondi.

[9][10] On March 9, 2016, Deadline Hollywood reported that Amblin Entertainment was hiring Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to direct a film titled Haunted, which would be inspired by Henry James' 1898 gothic ghost story, The Turn of the Screw.

[12] On September 21, 2016, five weeks before shooting was set to begin, Spielberg personally pulled the plug on the project[9] because Scott Z. Burns' partial rewrite caused seismic changes in the story's fabric, altering characters, action, and even the title, and it no longer resembled the project the studio had signed on to make.

[9] On August 24, 2017, Deadline reported that Amblin Entertainment had set Floria Sigismondi to direct Haunted, now renamed as The Turning,[10] which would feature a new draft by Jade Bartlett based on the original script by Chad and Carey W. Hayes.

Production was expected to start in early 2018 with Scott Bernstein and Roy Lee still attached as producers, along with Seth William Meier.

[23] The film's original soundtrack features tracks from Pale Waves, Mitski, girl in red, Kali Uchis, Vagabon, Courtney Love, Warpaint, Alice Glass, The Aubreys, Lawrence Rothman and Soccer Mommy.

[26] In September 2018, the film was moved back, with DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World being slated in its place.

[3][2] In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside The Gentlemen, and was projected to gross $7–9 million from 3,000 theaters in its opening weekend.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Stylish but muddled, this misbegotten adaptation of Henry James' classic novel will send horror-hungry viewers Turning to the source material instead.

"[31] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".