Directed by Robert Wise. Story by Shirley Jackson.
We who walk here, walk alone.
It is interesting to be able to watch an old film and see specifically how it influenced later filmmakers. For instance, the cabin in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead exhibits similar characteristics to Hill House. And there is the wooden door that starts to bend into the room as though something is trying to come through it that reminds me of the TV screen in David Cronenberg’s Videodrome.
I watched the biopic Shirley earlier this year so it was particularly interesting to revisit this film that is based on Shirley Jackson’s story The Haunting of Hill House. It starts out like an episode of Scooby-Doo but with far less likable characters. Just as I was about to get hopelessly bored with the melodrama, things started to kick in. While it is not a subtle movie, the building idea that the house is a reflection of Eleanor’s spiraling insanity is interestingly teased out in the use of mirrors in the lead up to the action.