I think my biggest issue with both the haunting and thohh is that they're both about the ghosts, not the house itself. Like yeah thohh has that bit with the red room but in the end they were the ghosts that made the mom throw the tea party, luke get into drugs and so on. Whereas there are no ghosts in the story, just the house, which was the whole point, right? I love both adaptation but they could be anything else than that. They basically only share the character names.
And yeah they both also have some other stuff picked from the story like Nell climbing the railing in TH or the cup full of stars and the stone rain story in thohh, and that thumping on the walls scene in both, but in both it kind of feels like they could do without and be completely separate properties. (Especially with how recontextualized they are in thohh)
And then there was something that reminded me of Bly but i don't remember now. i should have written this when i meant to right after reading the story but here I am writing what i remembered of it super randomly bc the haunting is on the tv hah 😅
Also, reading the story gave me such weird mix of imagining the characters as those from th and from thohh in turns lol
Idk i love the idea of a place messing with people rather than ghosts
SPEAK ON IT BESTIE
the thing is, hill house is a great ghost story, and a terrible adaptation. they really don't share anything but a title and a few character names. and shirley jackson had such an incisive, valuable story to tell in her novel about psychological trauma and horror, about the way disenfranchised women are viewed with suspicion and derision and often cast aside by society, the ominous presence of fear and loneliness, the desperation to find somewhere to belong, the way lines can blur between the mind and reality. i love show!nell and yet she is nothing like book!nell, and book!nell is SO important because rarely are women like her depicted or treated as if they matter. the show made the confusing choice to be about children and a nuclear family's terror and scars from actual malevolent ghosts, where you could argue the novel is about everything but the nuclear family - it rejects the concept (her mother was horrible and abusive, her sister and brother-in-law simultaneously controlling and dismissive). insist on your cup of stars is this deep ache she has, of never having anything of her own, even her dreams and wishes, clawing to keep one tiny shard of self. she escapes to the house, and the house is waiting for her. it preys on her because she's vulnerable and fanciful and troubled, it is an echo and manifestation of her isolation. the house is the monster. we're not even sure if the ghosts are there, and it doesn't matter. the house consumes people. the place itself is evil. its very facade is malignant. idk it's just such an effectively terrifying concept and eleanor (and theo) in the novel are such distinct female characters. the series/book are completely separate stories in my head.
"i love the idea of a place messing with people rather than ghosts" same
i think i've also said this to you but i'm never over that ending monologue in the show twisting and trampling the meaning of the iconic opening/closing lines of the novel. even within the concept of the series, it's baffling. the evil of hill house is hungry and destructive. there's no peace or union there. whatever walks there, walks alone.
