The Innocents (1961) goes well beyond the original source material. This is not merely a case of sexual repression. It is sexual projection, a mapping of desire and repulsion onto the possession delusion made concrete and real. A desire so powerful it broke through the surface of reality. A hideous self-loathing becomes entwined by a foreboding religious terror. She is tormented by the very demons which possess and consume her. She is nightly ravished by her tormented dreams. The paranoid mind must seek out clues from the barest of facts drawing the most far reaching assumptions, weaving out of whole cloth the unholy presence of this sickness. The explanation becomes its expiation. She seeks out in Ms. Grose an ally for her paranoid delusion. Every minor detail must be made to conform; every behavior that deviates in the slightest manner is evidence of a foul crime. Capote is at his masterful best and Clayton’s pacing and direction are chilling. The use of deep focus, a somewhat lost art form, and minimalist lighting force us to endure the unrelenting grip of her self-possession.