"a terrible turn" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It is typically used to describe a sudden and unexpected change or development that is negative or unfortunate. Example: The situation took a terrible turn when the storm caused a power outage, leaving the entire town in darkness for days.
When Mr. Mendoza was 13, his life took a terrible turn.
Adeline Merçon, who tested positive for H.I.V. in 1991, took a terrible turn for the worse in 1999.
This France, however, stands for Everywhere, a banal small place where history unfortunately takes a terrible turn.
Though things take a terrible turn for the worse when she misses an episode, and is replaced by Dr Perlmutter, played by Arye Gross.
But then it takes a terrible turn: Casper turns out to have been too volatile to withstand the changes to which he has been subjected.
From a policy perspective, it is arguably a terrible turn of events that megabanks bailed out during the crisis are now luring customers away from the George Baileys of the world.
The owner of the property, Bruce Emery, followed Cameron, and in a tragic, terrible turn of events, killed him.
MONEY & BUSINESS A Condemned Man's Father Bill McVeigh, a retired auto worker, sees his son, Timothy, as a regular kid whose life took a bewildering and terrible turn.
In the course of the next two years — as Turner's extradition process dragged on, as Bagby's parents moved from California to Newfoundland to fight for custody of the baby, and as the case eventually took an even more terrible turn — the film came to be about those events as well.
The importance of good oral hygiene cannot be underestimated when it comes to kissing is a pretty terrible turn-off.
Just to be clear: the Labour party's collective ethics have hardly taken this terrible turn after a long spell of loveliness.
