flanagan's usual emotionally cogent sense of non-linear horror writing and the where's waldo ghost scares and sense of mood from Hill House are all present, the craft is perfectly fine, but it's very unfortunate that the only idea they seemed to have for this material was to strip The Innocents of all its ambiguity and bleakness and psychosexuality and instead turn it into a romantic franchise prequel that solves and explains the plot which is then obviously updated to be Actually About Trauma now. even The Nightcomers had the good sense to leave the weird sex shit in the story.