Hey all! Coming off of my fourth rewatch of Haunting of Hill House on Netflix, and my... 8th? reread of Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959) (and with plans to watch The Haunting, cerca...1970? not the Liam neeson one) anyone else read it? watched it? strong feelings? to me it felt like an ensemble cast conversation with Shirley Jackson, a statement on grief, and weird and lovely, while oddly hopeful- but I know I'm a movie apologizer and I pick up on mood really fast, as a kind of accent. Any Spoilers, especially re: the Red Room and the last few episodes, please keep under spoilers (if I've missed a pre started thread, let me know)
Just finished watching this! I almost didn’t watch the show, because Spoiler: spoiler-ish? it’s horror, and the... second? third? episode contained kittens, and I was like. NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. But then I mentioned it to my sister, and she started raving about it, like, this is so amazing I loved it, you have to watch it, and I was like, Spoiler: same spoiler-ish? “Um, but kittens?” and she went, “Oh, yeah, that was bad... BUT HERE’S A PLOT SUMMARY OF THAT EPISODE NOW GO WATCH THE REST!” I’ve seen the black-and-white version of The Haunting. My dad and I got into a conversation about it when I was a kid- I hated scary movies, but I wanted to see it anyway, because the use of suggestion and atmosphere to create horror without actually showing us a monster was interesting to me. I’ve never read the book, but I downloaded it after I noped out of the Netflix series the first time. I also went poking around the reviews, and found more than one complaining that the show had simply butchered the original story. After finishing the series, I think I disagree. I think it’s more like a family AU. A meditation on/expansion of/response to the themes explored in the original. Certainly not perfect, and some of the original themes were dropped entirely (namely, isolation, and uncertainty re: whether or not this is All In the Protagonist’s Head) but I don’t think it was something that got cynically gutted for pieces because the showrunners didn’t care; I think it’s actually a pretty well done piece of fanfic that actually does give a shit about the source material, but chose to engage with it in dialogue form, rather than directly reproducing it. (I’m totally gonna read the book at some point, too.)
I'm so excited to watch this now, it seems right up my alley- I like those slow creeping movies that use atmosphere, and it seems like this will be truer to the book, which is also really exciting I think this is so hard to do in a movie without it being like, a hackneyed gimmick? that said, I loved it in the book, but respect their avoidance of it in the show Yes! this is almost word for word how I have been describing it, it's like the director read the book and is writing a love letter to Shirley Jackson about her book please let me know how you like it! there's an audiobook version that has a lower woman's voice actor (ETA: lower voiced woman voice actor, was what I was trying to say), and she does an incredible job also side note I love how we get a queer who genuinely doesn't feel like a token murder victim
Spoiler: red room spoilers entirely side note, but the SET DESIGN for making all the rooms the red room was incredible, and I have watched it multiple times solely to pick that up and to hear the clues .... and also, the seventeen minute long cut in Two Storms was spectacularly done
mashes agree button god that long shot was. daaamn. I watched all of the netflix series in 2 days and I loved it. Loved the characters show is beautiful such fun dynamics and so... gentle? kind? Such a human focus through it all? a bit conflicted @ certain parts of the ending but it's 1am and I should sleep before trying to dissect any of that :p
this thread will be here for you when you do! Spoiler: re ending I liked the hopefulness of the ending! but also it's a little funny to think like, well these people all are stuck in this house forever now I guess. so it's nice if I don't think too hard. fun story about the ending: I watched this at work the first three times, and I managed to miss seeing dad's body every time so I managed to convince myself the house like, ate him? instead of, he died and then he was like "yes my love I'll stay" the moral of this story is to pay attention to horror movies I guess
Spoiler: re: ending See I thought the ending was too hopeful, at the expense of the general mood/atmosphere of the show, like they took away all its teeth at the end. The house is bad! Staying there forever shouldn't be a good thing! I will freely admit that I am both a horror junkie and a sucker for bittersweet and unhappy endings, though.
Spoiler: re re end I only just read this take on Tumblr but I love the slow creep of it? I noticed Olivia's stare at the end too http://vampireapologist.tumblr.com/...ess-really-the-show-did-end-it-had-a-definite
I watched the netflix series... last week I think it was? and have never read the book or seen the movies but GOT DAMG the show was so!! good!! It didn't really creep me out/get at me in a horror way, but I was INVESTED in the drama of it all and the emotions of the characters
yeah like I think I'm gonna try to read it as hopeful, but like that's just how Im reading the story rn? I like the ambiguity and the conversation in it like, my brother and I have constant arguments about what the Real Story in Pan's Labyrinth was, and I just always like the fairy tale run
if you're a reader, I Heavily Recommend the book! there's so many references and it's so fucking good! side note: in the statue room, that's definitely a statue of Leda and the swan, right? I'm not just reading into it, right?
thank GOD, like the book has some wild statues and just vaguely "this house isn't v kid friendly" feels, but it was so Obvious Spoiler: further re ending just nell going "I am like a tiny creature swallowed whole by a monster", sells me harder on the spooky ending argument
I watched the whole show in one viewing session and was very taken with it. The Haunting 1999 is a fond childhood favourite and one of babbies first horror movies. I read the book a year or two ago and have mixed feelings on it. Spoiler: comparing the 3 It has been many years since I last watched the movie. I'd maybe consider it a bit more naff now but I recall enjoying the set design of that film and it had closure. The level of closure and explication needed is one of those very variable personal preference things in horror I feel. The book felt kind of frustrating to me in that regard but it had some excellent scenes in it particularly the handholding in the dark one big fav. Just with the book I found the end kind of sad and abrubt and I wasn't super taken with the lack of explaining on why the house is like that. I will build a beautiful house for my family and whoops accidentally an evil geometry. I get the impression I am just not the target audience here and it's a bit more metaphorical than I like for something where shinanigans are definitely happening. I feel the show had a good sense of closure for the end even though we know the house is still there and it will probably kill again. A lot of ends get tied up for the family. Certainly to me it feels like they have more understanding as they stand in the smoldering wreak of their lives than poor book Eleanor did. So, I didn't mind so much that show makes no real attempt to explain why the house is evil. I am curious as to how on earth the old lady managed to live for so long in there tho. Also love the ghost designs. Love them so much. I was super taken with the man with the hat and cane and the good ol bent neck lady. And it was really neat to see what scenes were from the book. They did a really good job with mixing it in
Spoiler what kingdombythesea said pretty much sums it up for me! I've read the tumblr post w the darker ending interpretation too and basically this just puts me in the same seat as Thelma (2017) did? An ending that theoretically should have really ominous undertones but the way it's played makes basically the entire fanbase go oh! happy ending! everyone is fine! :) I was 100% (or well. 90%. i'm not sure how to feel about Steve being the one to get the final closure moment in the house. but i think that's p greatly influenced by my instinctive 'hey, wait-' whenever smth by shirley jackson is tilted to i guess be more about men? if that makes sense? I was initially frowning at him being the one to write the novels too but i did enjoy him as a character so. shrugs. conflicted.) on board with the ending up until the Dudleys came in, because until then it had, for me, toed the line of "the house is making all of this seem appealing and wonderful but it's an illusion", but then once they showed up and just peacefully died and got to be younger & be with their children it just seemed... idk I would've preferred a more tangible sense of threat there. Dawning horror at the oh no, they're all trapped there rather than an awwww they get to be with their kids :) and so on reading the above paragraph over it is very incoherent I'm sorry. Feel free to poke for clarification x__x I'm absolutely satisfied with the surviving Crain siblings getting to move on with their lives though, that sense of closure was exactly what I wanted. I just wish the house remained more threatening.
I have finished the book! I have So Many Theories, and I keep meaning to come in and rant about it, but reality keeps distracting me. And it still is. So, I’m putting this in as a placeholder. Will be back to ramble when All the Things stop happening.
