The Haunting of Hill House

I got curious about this book through Mike Flanagan’s mini-series on Netflix. After watching The Haunting of Hill House adaptation I became a huge fan of his work, so I want to talk about the series first.

The series is only 10 episodes and it’s perfect. It covers topics like family dynamics, generational trauma, addiction and much more. It has everything — a great cast and performances, an oppressive atmosphere, strange and unsettling events, beautiful visuals and great sound, and so much meaning packed into it. It also perfectly shows how different children remember and process the same traumatic events within one family, and what roles they each end up taking on.

This isn’t just another horror series — it’s a real piece of art. I’ve rewatched it a couple of times and noticed something new each time. For example, on my second or third rewatch I noticed that some of the scary figures are placed so carefully that you don’t even see them at first — but they’re always there. Which makes it even scarier, because it’s not just something that jumps out at you once. It stays with you — that eerie feeling that someone is nearby, that someone is watching.

It was also a really nice touch that they added the mold problem in the house, because it makes the story feel realistic. The mother could genuinely have been mentally ill and experiencing hallucinations — mold spores are toxic and can affect people in very different ways. So you can watch it as a supernatural story where people face and fight ghosts, or as a realistic one where the “ghosts” are actually fears, traumas and grief in disguise.

— When I said I’ve never seen a ghost, that’s not exactly true. I’ve seen a lot of ghosts. Just not the way you think. A ghost can be a lot of things. A memory, a daydream, a secret. Grief, anger, guilt. But in my experience, most times, they’re just what we want to see. — Why would I want to see my Carl like that? — Because it’s better than never seeing him again. Most times, a ghost is a wish.

Long story short: I love how Flanagan reworked Jackson’s story and brought a fresh new perspective to it.

Now, the book itself. It has a gothic and dark atmosphere, but unfortunately it wasn’t tense or scary enough for me — I was expecting a bit more. That said, I do love how Shirley Jackson masterfully constructs her descriptions of the house and its surroundings. Her storytelling style is quite unusual and pretty slow-paced. I’m not sure whether that was influenced by her health at the time or whether it’s simply a very deliberate stylistic choice — in terms of themes, characters, dialogue and structure alike.