This is a BBC production of another adaptation of Henry James's classic ghost story "The Turn of the Screw." I really liked "The Innocents," the 50s movie that is probably the best known movie version of this story, so I was excited to see how this version stacked up against that one.
A governess is hired by a young man to take care of his young niece and nephew at their sprawling estate. Soon after she arrives, ghostly things start happening, and she learns that the mysterious happenings have scared away other women in the past, which is why the governess position was open in the first place. Soon she learns there are even more secrets in the house and more reasons to be terrified.
This version has the former governess committed to an asylum, and a therapist interviewing her, trying to find out what happened at the house. This lets us off the hook a little, knowing what happened at the house, or at least knowing that very bad things happened, right from the start. It's kind of sad to watch, seeing how happy the children were with her at first, then seeing how things quickly went bad from there.
This movie leans more toward the "that woman was nuts, she imagined everything" side of the story. The book is much more ambiguous, letting the reader decide if the ghosts and the evil was real, or if it was all in the woman's mind. I think part of why this story is so popular to adapt is because the original book let the reader decide what to believe.
The movie "The Innocents" is also much more ambiguous than this version, so whether we believe evil spirits were responsible for the events in that house, we can still see why someone could believe in evil spirits and that those spirits were corrupting the children in the house. This movie seems to be more interested in saying "sexual repression is bad, it drives you crazy," and I don't really disagree with that, but this is an extreme way of dealing with the issue. It's not bad, but I think I like other versions better.
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