The Haunting of Hill House Scares Us!

I'm hoping that some of you listening to this episode are fans of Netflix's adaptation of Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House, which also happens to be my favorite novel of all time.  I understand why you liked it -- many, many people did; you're not alone -- but I'm hoping you might check out the book, and give the original Eleanor Vance a shot.  Enjoy the semicolons; enjoy, heartily, the adverbs; enjoy the shifting of reality, and see if you agree with me or not:  if Hill House is haunted, what is it haunted by?

If you're playing along at home and you're trying to guess the number of copies of HoHH  I possess, you can start counting the hardcovers.  Many of them are gifts from my friend Angie (the blue British edition in the top left hand corner; the gorgeous embossed copy from Easton Press; the blue and yellow hardcover on the bottom row).  The two with the creepy yellow flowers and the house lurking in the background were Holy Grails for me; one I found on Etsy for a bit of a price, and the yellow copy (with the jacket attached), which was rebranded in 1968, three years after Shirley's death, I found for a song on Abe Books, I believe (check 'em out).  I am not, however, a huge fan of the copy from Guillermo Del Toro on the bottom left.  The copy displayed on its spine is the Reader's Digest Condensed version I found in a thrift shop in Glasgow the summer of 1994, when I discovered Shirley initially; it has stunning illustrations that perfectly encapsulate the characters for me, exactly as I pictured them.  I'll post those below as well.

Here are the paperback copies.  It's amazing to me how many different editions exist, especially in softcover; as I've said before on the podcast, if I like a book I will buy as many different editions asI can get my paws on (which explains why I have sixty billion copies of The Wizard of Oz, Dracula, and King's 'Salem's Lot).  The two copies in the bottom right corner are the two I referred to during the episode:  the one with the gingham-looking border, featuring Luke glaring at the audience, was the first copy I ever owned, and the one beside it is the first copy I actually ever read, donated to me by the librarians of Hellgate High School.

An excellent British paperback edition I do not possess (yet).

A closeup of the Penguin edition from 1984, and the first I ever owned:  there's Luke, looking directly at us, and Eleanor, huddled in the corner; headless Dr. Montague; and Theo, tucked neatly into the chair with her legs over the arm.  I have been known to attack a chair myself in just that manner.  While I enjoy it, it certainly doesn't seem to proclaim that this is a horror novel, or even a ghost story.  (Although I do enjoy the "fatuous little cupid" statue Jackson describes perched up on the mantle.)

Summer of 2010, showing Ryan my (as-of-yet unowned) Holy Grail (in the Glasgow library). 

A closeup of the first edition dustjacket.  Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Oregon, has a signed first edition for $2000.

The illustrations by Ben Stahl from the 1959 Reader's Digest Condensed version.

 

Eleanor tries to run over Dudley-at-the-gate.

 The core four hanging out in the shadows of Hill House.

Theo tempts the statue of Hugh Crain.

Eleanor and Theo clutch each other as something unseen bangs on the door.  What was it?  Stephen King insists that the door be opened; I disagree.

A giant shift in tone:  the arrival of the irascible Mrs. Montague and cowardly Arthur Parker.

Eleanor spies on Theo and Luke, who aren't talking about her at all.

Eleanor, going higher and higher ...

Recorded Tonight ...

Katya and I recorded tonight, and take it from this gimongous Hill House / Shirley fan, it's a good one.  Look for it on November 10th!  (I may also have some not-so-nice things to say about the Netflix adaptation ...)

Netflix's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE ... Teleport, Don't Walk

Or just fire up Netflix like a normal person.

So ... and you won't hear me admit this very often ... but ... I was wrong (!) about Netflix's ten episode adaptation of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, which, as faithful listeners know, is my favorite novel of all time.

I'll save my actual review for the episode Katya and I have planned in a few weeks (oh yeah; This Place Scares Us still exists, don't fret about that; technical difficulties may slow us but never stop us permanently!), but I just wanted to stop by to say ... RUN!  RUN!  RUN!  OH MY GOOD GAY GOD, RUN!  RUN TO YOUR NETFLIX!  OPEN YOUR NETFLIX!  PLAY THE EPISODES, PLAY THE EPISODES!  Whew!  That was a narrow escape.  I was afraid that my own doubts and fears might have prevented you from trying it out, and that I will not have.

I will say that it is fraught with Easter Eggs for those of us that love the book; no spoilers, I promise, but here are a few:

Nell's name.

Her age.

Her cup(s).

Her doctor.

And, of course, the names of most of the characters.

Go.  Watch.  I'll wait.

In the night.

In the dark.

You too can pick up your very own copy of The Haunting of Hill House just like I did (I got mine at Barnes and Noble; Amazon never shipped the copy I pre-ordered; if you're feeling brave, you can try here).

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE ... coming soon to Netflix ...

So the trailer for Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House is here, debuting October 12th.  I'm trying to remain optimistic, I really am, I swear; however, this is my favorite book of all time, and it's been ridiculously disgraced once before (eff you, Jan De Bont; Catherine Zeta Jones, you redeemed yourself with Chicago), so I'm very protective of it.  This definitely looks creepy, but ... familiar.  Creepy hands, people hanging over you as you sleep ... I dunno.  The novel was about a woman's mental disintegration; this looks like The Conjuring . Fuck The Conjuring.

Sigh.  I'll give it a shot.

Look for an episode on HoHH ... soon.

Netflix's HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE

So here's the thing:  regular listeners know that I am a HUUUUUUGE Shirley Jackson geek, and while I appreciate all her work, my favorite of her novels is the first I read:  The Haunting of Hill House, her 1959 masterpiece.  The 1963 adaptation by Robert Wise is genius; the 1999 remake by Jan DeBont is vile.  When Netflix announced last year that it would be releasing a ten episode adaptation, you can imagine that I was incredibly excited.

I've been increasingly nervous, however; the IMDB page doesn't list any of the characters from the novel, save for Mr. and Mrs. Dudley, the Gothic (to say the least) groundskeeper and his grim wife the housekeeper.  I was holding out hope that because featured actors like Carla Gugino, Timothy Hutton, and Oliver Cohen-Jackson didn't (and still don't) have characters listed, they would be playing Eleanor, Dr. Montague, and Luke Sanderson respectively, the main characters from Jackson's novel.

But then I read this at the AV Club ...

"Flanagan’s riff deviates from the original’s motley crew of paranormally gifted guests, who are invited to the titular house by a doctor devoted to finding scientific evidence of the supernatural. Here, the story centers around “a group of siblings who, as children, grew up in what would go on to become the most famous haunted house in the country.” The story will reportedly flit back and forth between the past and a modern-day present as it finds the siblings (and, per the photos, their families) revisiting the house “in the face of tragedy.”

... and my hopes went out the window.

I'm still looking forward to the adaptation (I really enjoyed director Mike Flanagan's Gerald's Game last spring, which also featured Gugino); but I'm extremely disappointed that Netflix appears to be abandoning the Jackson characters, who are the ENTIRE REASON THAT I LOVE THE BOOK -- the history of Hill House is fascinating, sure, but that isn't the point of the novel.  The point is following protagonist Eleanor Vance's mental disintegration, and wrestling with questions like, "Was it Eleanor ... was it the house ... are there even ghosts at all?"  The house is awesome; ultimately, the house doesn't matter.

Oh, Netflix ... you're scaring me.  And not necessarily in the good way.

And Whatever Walked There, Walked Alone

I am obsessed with houses.

That's probably why The Haunting of Hill House is my favorite novel; it also doesn't hurt that I grew up in the following:

So I suppose I should explain that this isn't quite how the house looked when I lived there (from 1985-1992, and then 1995-1997; my folks were there until 2007), but it's not that far off either (though it was a bit more painted; also, the windows weren't quite so ... broken).  But it always had that sort of brooding air, like something was watching you ... always watching.

I was a bit surprised to find this ... um ... garbage pit (?) that definitely did not exist during my tenure there; note that this is also a pit of bones!  Bone-us!  (Did I just say that?  Yes, yes I did.)

This was the bedroom I shared with my brother until we were both 9 and 8, at which point we moved into the (significantly scarier) basement; I was so thrilled to finally have my own bedroom I didn't care about the ghosts (the shredding sounds in the middle of the night, the sound of someone pacing back and forth behind the headboard of my bed, the glowing green lights in the middle of the night; you know, the usual).  When Ryan and I visited, we disturbed two birds that had become trapped in this room and were unable -- or, perhaps, unwilling -- to escape.  Sing it with me now:  BIRDS BIRDS BIRDS BIRDS BIRDS BIRDS BIRDS!

"Exorcism cannot alter the countenance of a house; Hill House would remain as it was until it was destroyed." -- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)

Happy Halloween from This Place Scares Us!

Happy Halloween, kitty cats!  Here are a few things that scare us, some from past episodes, some from THE FUTURE (!), and some ... eh, they're freaky. 

Yick.  The poor dead girl from the opening of It Follows, the subject of our premiere episode (click here to listen!).  This is only one of many reasons you shouldn't wear high heels to the beach.

Ol' shaggy, the subject of Stephen King's Silver Bullet, who is definitely a werewolf and not some kind of angry hell bear.

Who is this fanged fiend and why isn't the blood of the innocent keeping him forever young?  Find out in Episode 7, forthcoming ...

What horrible thing lurks at the threshold of Theodora's bedroom?  Ask Shirley Jackson, the mistress of the macabre and the author of The Haunting of Hill House as well as "The Lottery", the subject of Episode 2. 

You'll like Mr. Barlow ... and he'll like you.  (We'll cover 'Salem's Lot, I promise.)

And a little hint about our forthcoming episode, debuting November 12th ...

Clinkies!