Happy Halloween! Assuming I can find the time, I'll try to post bits of my favorite Halloween movies all this week.
There's a truly dreadful remake of this movie that came out a few years back, but ignore it. The original 1963 version is wonderful. Lotsa lesbian subtext in both versions (and in the novel). If you're into that kinda thing.
The source material is Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, a really good, really scary read. Here's the first paragraph:
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."
I love that "not sane," hiding in the second sentence. So understated, and thus so effective.
By Jeff Wood · Launched 4 years ago
Award-winning, non-fiction writing about reading, writing, art, family, love, astronomy, orbital mechanics, and life. Long form stories are featured along the links at the top.
