creepiest willow

Martin Scorsese says The Innocents, 1961, is one of top 11 scariest horror films of all time. It's based on the novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Directed and produced by Jack Clayton, it stars Deborah Kerr, Michael Redgrave and Megs Jenkins. It did not do well at the box office at the time, but since then, critics call it one of the best psychological thrillers ever made, and it has received much praise and even cult status over the years. The dark, atmospheric film uses lighting, music, and direction for its effect rather than gore and shock factor.

So, why am I posting on this particular movie? Because it features one of the creepiest willow songs ever. "O Willow Waly", written by Georges Auric and Paul Dehn and sung on the soundtrack by Isla Cameron, was released in the UK following the film, on a Decca single in March, 1962. Simple and chilling, it's one of those earworms that haunts you for days afterwards.

If you're wondering what in the world "waly" means, I had to look it up, as well.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

(interj.) An exclamation of grief.

We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow.

But now alone I lie and weep beside the tree.

Singing "Oh willow waly" by the tree that weeps with me.

Singing "Oh willow waly" till my lover return to me.

We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow.

A broken heart have I. Oh willow I die, oh willow I die.