As part of my second screen project, my research topic will be about investigating more into the psychological and “horror” genre and how it could be tied in with the mind and emotions, focusing on inner monologues almost as the driving narrative. In my opinion, The Haunting of Hill House (2018) directed by Mike Flanagan serves as a great example.
So just some background info, The Haunting of Hill House is a Netflix original series loosely based on the novel under the same title written by Shirley Jackson. To me, this adaptation works great as both a horror story, but more importantly, as a compelling family drama. Perhaps it’s something that is more existential. It puts the setting and genre to good use, with plenty of jump scares, “ghosts” and gore to satisfy horror fans. The hollow halls of the disordered mansion are used to tell the story of the just-as-disordered family that lives there.
What Exactly Are These “Ghosts”?
So, the plot alternates between two timelines, following a family of seven (the Crains) and their time in Hill House during the past, as well as their own separate lives in the present. All members of the family, but particularly the children, are plagued with “ghost” sightings ever since they were young. One of them takes the form of a slender man wearing a bowler hat (see image below), and continues to haunt the youngest of five siblings, Luke.
image from Google Images
So, these “ghosts” still follow the siblings as they make their way into adulthood. But to me, these “ghosts” aren’t exactly considered as ghouls trapped between spiritual realms, but rather a representation of personal manifestations for the individual they haunt, acting as a visual aid for the truths these individuals must accept and vanquish. For instance, Luke struggles with drug addiction. So tying it back with the ghost of the slender man, this probably represents the guilt that comes after a relapse. Or how Olivia (the mother) slowly seems to lose her mind from something that might not actually be there hiding in the shadows, but rather as a result of stress and fatigue; whether or not the horrors that dwell inside Hill House are real, or simply just figments of one’s imaginations. I think that this ambiguity is an effective way to create doubt, as well as raises questions and feeds the curiosity inside the viewer’s mind. The two quotes below convey this idea nicely.
image from Google Images
image from Google Images
So I guess you could say that it’s not a paranormal story so much as a meditation on issues such as grief and trauma. It effectively explores how the “ghosts” of our pasts are just as scary as what goes bump in the night. To me, it is deemed to be impervious to reason or even logic. It is inescapable, such that we see each family member being pushed deeper and deeper into their own psychological terrors that manifest themselves as those terrifying “ghosts”. “All of them see ghosts. It’s what they do with the knowledge that their metaphorical and physical home is being haunted that finally allows them to come together and cope with the past. If Hill House is personified as a monster that feeds on its inhabitants, the family unit itself is also personified as a kind of organism that thrives on suffering in the form of co-dependency.” (Bernstein, 2018). The father, Hugh once said that Olivia (his wife and the children’s mother) was the metaphorical kite in their marriage; airy, drifting, ephemeral, while he was the line; steadfast, devoted and anchored to the earth. “In the world of Hill House, devotion to family is a tender kind of madness that exists just on the other side of mourning, a ghostly insistence that the love that binds us is also the thing that keeps us chained.” (Bernstein, 2018).
Since screen project 2 would be my very first attempt at making a “horror” film, I would really like to challenge myself and include some of the inspirations I got from the series into my own project. Perhaps try and include the idea of “ghosts” (but still unsure of what they will look like, if they shall appear at all) as a representation of both the literal and metaphorical horrors that exist in the house/mind.
Monologues
Here’s an example of a condensed monologue from the series that particularly stood out to me.
Nell: “Our moments fall around us like rain. Or snow. Or confetti. Mom says that a house is like a body, and that every house has eyes. And bones. And skin. And a face. This room is like the heart of the house. No, not a heart, a stomach. I’m like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster. And the monster feels my tiny little movements inside. I’m scattered into so many pieces, sprinkled on your life like new snow. Forgiveness is warm. Like a tear on a cheek. Think of that and of me when you stand in the rain. The rest is confetti.”
While this may sound silly to some, or maybe it doesn’t even make sense to others, I think the whole point is that these “feelings” can only be understood by that one individual, which in this case, is Nell. This is something I’m thinking of doing for my own project, where the poems/quotes will sound somewhat metaphorical, communicating the true meanings that I want to convey, but at the same time, is still open to other interpretations.
The Idea of A “House”
So the series explores the house-as-body metaphor. As for my own project, I’ll be taking a similar approach to this; exploring the idea of a house-as-mind metaphor. I also think that it’s a good representation of the current state we’re all in, being isolated in our own homes under less than ideal conditions. While this may not be the case for some, I think that this quote from the series describes this idea nicely, and could act as a source of inspiration.
Steven: “No live organism can continue to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality.”
And here’s part of a poem that I wrote quite a while back, which may or may not exactly relate to this whole topic, but to just kind of give a sense of it.
Another day begins.
You open your eyes to the four walls you call home;
your cell, trapped behind bars.
What’s on the agenda today?
Another never-ending loop of monotony?
That’s enough to drive you to the brink of madness,
rotting away in a place so dull and devoid of colour.
Reference List:
Bernstein, A. 2018, ‘How The Haunting of Hill House conveys the horror of family’, The Guardian, viewed 13 September 2021, <https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/oct/26/haunting-hill-house-netflix-family-horror>
