Screen to Scream: The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House is a novel that writers like Stephen King cite for inspiration whenever they decide to make up a building, fill it with ghosts, and then have people haunted by the ghosts inside the house as well as the ones inside their minds. Hollywood has gone back to this haunted house many times, with a movie made in 1963 and a special effects extravaganza in 1994 that featured Liam Neeson before he revealed his particular set of skills and Owen “Wow” Wilson. The newest adaptation in the form of a TV series from Netflix is more than just a pale imitation or cash grab. It also showcases the psychological underpinnings that are frequent with Jackson's novel.

One reason that Shirley Jackson’s novel is so well-respected and gets recycled again and again is that it’s not just a ghost story. Indeed, there is no ghost actually seen in the novel despite the readers being told time and again by Dr. Montague the evil reputation of this place. For those of you that don’t know the original, Dr. Montague brings in three strangers to help him explore whether Hill House’s reputation as a haunted house is warranted. In the book, he serves as both mentor and expository device explaining the house’s history, but it is Eleanor that is the book’s main protagonist. It is through her eyes that readers watch what is happening in Hill House. Eleanor is a woman who has experienced little in life save for caring for her sick mother. What begins as a grand adventure for Eleanor becomes a series of erratic behaviors and ultimately madness. Hill House doesn’t claim Eleanor in a supernatural sense but it has captivated and imprisoned her mind within its walls. In a cinematic landscape full of jittery CGI spirits, Jackson deftly only requires pounding on the wall and strange messages to show what Hill House is doing to Eleanor’s mind, and readers don’t need to see a ghost to know that Eleanor is being tormented.

The new series from Netflix is fan-service for those who enjoy the novel, but it is also much more. Eagle-eyed viewers can try to spot the many ghosts that showrunner Michael Flanagan left for readers to find even as they notice characters and scenes that are callbacks to the original novel. Even if the series didn’t have the Hill House name attached, even if it didn’t borrow their characters’ names, this story is a unique ensemble drama on the effects of trauma, the narrative jumping back and forth between the past and present to show what has marked the Crain children and what continues to define them well into adulthood. All the children have their own ways of coping with what went on in that house, from Shirley completely repressing and refusing to discuss it to Luke turning to drugs. Older brother Stephen is writing about their experiences but in a fictionalized way that doesn’t really give him closure. The children are not confronting their experiences in Hill House largely thanks to the dad who has kept secrets about their mother and about the house from them. Much like how Jackson lets “her” Eleanor be the readers’ eyes, the viewers are given a chance to see what has broken each of the Crain children both in the house and outside of it. Eleanor was doomed because she was alone, even with three other people with her. The Crain children are each trying to process their trauma alone, but it is when they come together that the possibility of healing finally emerges. The old argument of book vs. movie is one that will continue as long as books are made into them, but both series and film should be enjoyed as their own entity without the pressure of having to choose.