The Turning ending explained: What happened to Miles?

The Turning is a film in the gothic horror genre, and Universal Pictures released it on January 24, 2020. It was adapted from Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw that came out in 1898. The film is directed by Floria Sigismondi, while Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes are the writers. Here's the synopsis:

A young governess is hired to look after an orphaned girl, but the return of the girl's problematic brother uncovers secrets from their past. A modern take on Henry James' novella "The Turn of the Screw."

Let's find out how the film ends.

What is the plot of The Turning?

A still from The Turning | Image via Universal Pictures YouTube

The Turning takes place in 1994 and focuses on Kate Mandell, who is assigned as a governess to take care of two children after their parents are killed in a car accident. Slowly, Kate starts to experience paranormal things in their house, and the entire story takes off from there.

How does The Turning end?

Towards the end of The Turning, Kate's mother sends her an art email. Later, Kate finds the corpse of Ms. Jessel inside the pond. She also sees Jessel getting assaulted and strangled by Quint. The vision suggests that Mrs. Grose is aware of this. We see that the spirit of Quint pushes him from the stairs, which results in her death. Kate leaves the house with the children. The earlier scene is the vision of Kate. She is pressing that Flora is also seeing the ghost of Quint. The doll of Flora is broken mistakenly by Kate, which leads to Miles calling her out. All of them leave the room. But Kate, in her vision, sees herself going to the institution where her mother is. An apparition turns towards Kate, and she screams.

The film ends on an ambiguous note without revealing whom Kate sees. It also doesn't provide a concrete answer as to whether the ghosts are actually haunting the house or not. But Kate believes that they are real as she continues to see them. There is a subplot in the film involving Miles' possession. It is stated that Peter Quint's ghost is inside his body.

In the end, as everyone is leaving the house, Miles says that Peter won't allow him to leave. But it is never confirmed if he was actually possessed or not. The makers deliberately blur the lines between real and imaginary events in the storyline. Several questions are left for the viewers to ponder. Kate continues to have visions of things. So it is possible that the entire threat of evil was in her head.

Because of how polarizing the film's ending was after its release, Universal Pictures decided to fix this issue. They released a new version of the film with an alternate ending in the Blu-ray format. In it, Peter Quint's ghost attacks Kate, but in turn, gets choked by her. But Flora intervenes and asks her to stop as she is actually choking Miles. He becomes normal after a spider leaves his body, after which he gazes at her. The film ends abruptly with Kate's scream.

What do you think of The Turning's ending?