More semi-coherent thoughts on a modern adaptation of We Have Always Lived in the Castle (or possibly an adaptation of it set during the COVID-19 lockdown)
Merricat hasn't touched the Internet since the murders. At first, it was out of a desire to avoid social media and not see what people were saying about her and her family, but then it turned into quitting the internet entirely. She wants Constance to stop paying the Internet bill and cut off the entire house's access to the Internet- In the original book, the Blackwoods get rid of their phone and stop receiving mail after the murders occur, so a modern! Merricat wants the Internet to be cut off as well. This further isolates them from the outside world and makes them seem even more disconnected from the passage of time.
But they still pay for some Internet access because of Constance. She's the one member of the family who uses it, mostly for things that help her care for Uncle Julian (such as ordering medical supplies for him, etc.). One day, Merricat finds Constance talking to people online, quietly expressing a desire to leave her home. This freaks Merricat out.
Cousin Charles encourages the other members of the family to start using the Internet again. Modern! Merricat takes this about as well as you'd expect. Maybe this time around, his watch (which she destroys) is not just a standard watch, but an Apple watch/Smart watch?
After the fire, the Blackwood house has lost all access to the Internet.
If this modern adaptation takes place during the days of lockdown, then early in the story, Merricat hears about growing fear about a new, spreading virus. When she feels Constance is expressing a desire to leave the home, Merricat tells her it's not safe out there because there's a virus.
Lockdown and the virus come to the village around the same time Cousin Charles arrives. Merricat tells Constance she's convinced that Charles has brought the virus, despite the fact that he himself doesn't have it. Constance tries to tell "silly Merricat" that the lockdown and spreading of the disease isn't Charles's fault, but Merricat won't hear it.
Because of the lockdown restrictions setting it, Cousin Charles announces that it looks like he'll be quarantining with them for a while. Merricat is enraged. Charles insists she try to get along with him because like it or not, they're all stuck here.
Uncle Julian doesn't always remember there's a pandemic happening, he just assumes that Constance has decided to deep clean the entire house and is proud of her for doing so, praising her for her cleanliness and being so conscious of diseases.
Merricat is accepting of lockdown, she's glad that she no longer has a reason to leave her family's property, and she secretly hopes that the virus kills everyone else in the village so it will finally be just her and Constance. The only things she truly dislikes about COVID are: the fact that it's forcing Charles to live with them, the fact that it's extra distressing to Constance, and the fact that she has to start performing new spells in order to prevent any of them from getting sick.
The villagers get more and more hostile the longer lockdown goes on (I don't think the original book takes place over a very long period of time, but maybe this adaptation can have a timeskip. Or lockdown just happens to hit the village hard and fast. Either option works, tbh).
In a pandemic version, I feel like the villagers would attack the house after feeling like the Blackwoods had brought the pandemic to their village. Obviously, the easiest target for this belief is Charles, because he's a newcomer, but the villagers are supposed to hate the sisters, not Charles. So tbh, I don't know how they'd blame COVID on Merricat or Constance. They'd find a way, though, and then would raid/attack the house.
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