Twin Peaks and The Innocents

Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Innocents. 

The Innocents is a purposefully ambiguous — often disturbing and haunting — film that can be interpreted with many different readings. Because of this, it frequently draws comparisons to David Lynch's oeuvre.

The Innocents is based on the Henry James novel The Turn of the Screw, and tells the story of a governess, a Miss Giddens, sent to care for two young orphaned children, siblings named Flora and Miles. The governess is initially enchanted by her charges and the isolated grand estate known as Bly in which the children live. Though, as time draws on, the house takes on eerie darkness, the once seemingly angelic children grow sinister, and the spirits of former governess Miss Jessel and her lover Peter Quint appear to Miss Giddens, leading to Gidden's unraveling.

Having watched the film, a few instances brought to mind similarities with Twin Peaks. All are audiovisual and mostly subtle. Depending on your view, the film contains notions of possessed children, suicide, secrets, haunting, incestuous behavior, spirits that not everyone can see, and birds and their ominous song.

Interestingly, Freddie Francis, the cinematographer for The Innocents, also worked with David Lynch on The Elephant Man, Dune, and The Straight Story. 

The film opens with the plaintive O Willow Waly and fades into silence before birdsong breaks through the darkness. We see hands raised in prayer.

Statuary fills the interior and grounds of the estate, evoking the statues in The Black Lodge.

Miss Giddens and the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, discuss Miles after having received a letter stating that the boy has been expelled from his boarding school. Giddens has not met Miles at this point, and is worried about his character. Her use of the word contaminate to mean corrupt calls to mind Harold's words to Donna Hayward. 

Young Miles seems to sense Miss Giddens outside his door. He tells her he guessed it was her after seeing the light from her candle under the door, though one is inclined to think otherwise. Flora similarly guessed that Miles would be coming home far before he was dispelled from school. This reminds me of the intuitive abilities of some characters in Twin Peaks.

Like BOB, Miles seems capable of manipulating the wind in one scene. After inviting Miss Giddens to enter his room, the governess speaks to the boy. As she presses Miles to confess what might be troubling him, the windows fly open and extinguish the sole source of light in the room.

Miss Giddens and Flora picnic in a gazebo beneath a willow tree. Perhaps unnecessary to mention, but characters in Twin Peaks often go on picnics.

Mrs. Grose recounts for Miss Giddens the story of how Peter Quint's life came to an end. A wound to the head is reminiscent of wounds dealt in Twin Peaks, such as those of Leland Palmer and Dale Cooper. 

In Fire Walk With Me: The Missing Pieces, Cooper's double lies about the cause of his self-inflicted head wound, saying, "I slipped and hit my head on the mirror. The glass broke as it struck my head. It struck me as funny, Harry.  Do you understand me, Harry, it struck me as funny."

Miss Gidden ruminates in the dark, as did Leland Palmer (while Maddy left the house in disguise as Laura) and Betty Briggs (before Major Briggs appeared in her living room).

Miles rides a pony. Horses and ponies are associated with Sarah Palmer's visions of horses. Laura Palmer's pony Troy is mentioned in The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer and deleted dialogue from episode one (Traces to Nowhere, 1.001). Laura says she loves horses in the Between Two Worlds feature, and Carrie Page has a horse on the mantle of her fireplace. 

The wind blows the trees. With The Innocents, we are made to feel dread instead of a flood of calmness associated with the reality of nature, the feeling imposed during shots of the wind blowing through the trees in Twin Peaks. The trees are not accompanied by a subdued air of mystery or music but by intensity, the rapid fluttering of bird wings, locusts, a howling wind, and the caw of ravens, magnifying the fear and disorientation Miss Giddens must feel as she is visibly disconcerted, vexed by young Miles unbridled, dangerous horse riding. 

When Miss Giddens believes she first sees the ghost of Peter Quint, she looks up to a tower where he seems to be standing. Recall how Laura sometimes looks up when she speaks to BOB in Fire Walk With Me.

Miss Giddens is in a garden when she beholds the apparition. Note the intense white light that accompanies her at this moment. Flashes of white light, like electrical currents, attend BOB's appearances in Fire Walk With Me. Note also the circular mouth of water nearby. It reminds me of the white-lined entrances to portals as seen in Twin Peaks. Time seems to stop for Miss Giddens as she regards the man on the tower. The sounds around her cease, and she is left in a void save for him - until the light fades and he is gone. With his departure, the birds renew their song.

When Miss Giddens finds a music box in the attic, a stuffed owl can be seen in the background.

Miss Giddens is confronted by the ghost of Peter Quint as she plays a game of hide-and-seek with Miles and Flora. The spirit seems more animal than man, breathing heavily and wildly. Small noises escape his mouth, small growls or laughs, as if he is incapable of restraint. A being barely holding on, as if he is doing all he can to prevent hatred and evil from spilling out from his quaking body. A behavior very reminiscent of BOB.

Miss Gidden's succeeding vision of Quint.

Giddens finds and keeps a portrait of Quint she found in the attic. The portrait of Quint is the only link to the spirit she sees and the once-living man. No one else will admit to seeing him. Like the police sketch of BOB seen on his wanted poster, this is the only physical image of Quint.

Miles asks Miss Giddens if the house she grew up in was too small for her to have secrets. Secrets are synonymous with the town of Twin Peaks and its citizens.

After Miss Giddens tells Mrs. Grose of her encounter with Quint, Grose suggests she think of it as a dream. This recalls Phillip Jeffries line, "We live inside a dream," and the constant use of dreams as a key to other realities and realms in Twin Peaks.

Miss Giddens dreams of Flora dancing with Miss Jessel, something the little girl said she would often do with her former governess. Leland Palmer notably wanted to dance with his daughter after her death, spinning in circles, clutching her picture frame. Later, after his hair turned white, Leland began to sing and dance on a regular basis. In The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, Laura writes of a threatening figure she sees in a dream who tells her, "You'll come a'waltzing Matilda with me." Laura also writes of dancing with her father at Christmas time. The following images are from Giddens' same dream.

Miles whispers secrets in Flora's ear, as Laura did with Dale.

Secrets in dreams.

Miss Giddens prays. An image that reminds me of Laura's angel.

Miss Giddens demands that Flora confess she sees the ghost of her former governess on the other side of the lake. The girl claims ignorance and begins screaming wildly. The spirit appears from thin air the same as BOB and has a similar unnerving quality. Jessel's body was found in the water like Laura Palmer and Teresa Banks. Though, Jessel committed suicide.

Miss Giddens speaks to Miles in the greenhouse beside many orchids, some of which are of the slipper verity, the same type Harold gave Donna to place on Laura's grave.

Peter Quint appears behind the young child. To Miss Giddens' eyes, his appearance confirms his possession of the boy. The spirit is again almost feral in his demeanor.  The place he appears evokes the German title of Twin Peaks episode 10 (2.003), The Man Behind Glass. Behind the window, he almost gives the appearance of a reflection, the hidden side of the boy made visible. 

Peter Quint appears to Miss Giddens and Miles, hand outstretched and possibly shaking. This is moments before the child finally speaks the name of his tormentor, the late Quint. Depending on one's view, it seems as though the child's possession ends only with his death, similar to Leland Palmer. The outstretched hand is a repeated action in Twin Peaks and reminiscent of the tremors that ignite the hands of many in late season two.

Though many comparisons may be far-reaching, Twin Peaks and The Innocents have similarities.

You can watch the full film The Innocents below.