 Critics were divided in their reviews of The Turn of the Screw . The acting and tone of the production were generally praised , but the plot 's divergences from the original story were less well received . A particular disagreement concerned the film 's horrific elements ; some critics considered it to be genuinely scary , while others suggested that the horror was not fully effective . The original story has been much analysed owing to its ambiguity , and critics disagreed about the extent to which the film succeeded in portraying this trait . Academic analyses found the film considerably less ambiguous than the novella . The Turn of the Screw was released on DVD on 1 March 2010 in the UK and on 28 April 2015 in North America . 
