 The divergences from the original novella 's plot were generally not well received . Tim Teeman , reviewing The Turn of the Screw for The Times , felt the 1920s setting did not contribute to the story , as it was not properly developed . He compared the film to Sarah Waters 's novel The Little Stranger , a ghost story set in the 1920s in which the social upheavals of the decade are explored . Gerard Gilbert , writing both for The Independent and The Arts Desk , felt that Ann 's relationship to the Master was " unnecessarily sexed up " , and that this element added nothing to the story , and , in fact , detracted from it . In his review of the American DVD release for the Deseret Morning News , Chris Hicks said that he could not see why the changes had been made , and that the literalisation of the sex and violence detracted from the film . Whittaker suggested that The Turn of the Screw was " oddly sexually explicit " , and that the changes were unnecessary for the plot . The biggest problem , he suggested , was the introduction of the psychiatrist ; his discussions with Ann , which could easily be removed , served to remove the mystery from the plot , in Whittaker 's eyes . Sutcliffe was critical of the reframing of the story as a stereotypical account of how " a cocky young man of science has his certainties upturned " , and said the film took " the terrifying indeterminacies of the original " , turning them " into a slightly shabby ghost @-@ train ride " . 
