r/HauntingOfHillHouse

Does anyone know how I can get the sharpie off this? I’ve tried alcohol pads.
▲ 3.7k r/HauntingOfHillHouse+1 crossposts

Does anyone know how I can get the sharpie off this? I’ve tried alcohol pads.

I plan to display this beautiful crock pot I found for $1.45 at a thrift store today, but I can’t get the old owners name off of it. Anyone have any tricks or experience with this?

Edit: after so many comments I realized there’s an easy solution here and that is… the crockpot is named Nell and that’s just how it is. It will remain Nell for as long as it’s with me! Y’all made it too funny to remove. Thanks for providing so many laughs today!

u/Similar-Toe4495 — 1 day ago

Congrats to Olive Abercrombie (Abigail), who will be in Percy Jackson S3 as Bianca de Angelo.

Felt bad for her as Abigail. Thought the friendship between her and little Luke was too cute.

I'm struggling with mixed feelings towards this show. Can someone please help me out?

Edit: apologies for the length. I would add “long” to the title, if I could.

TL; DR: I'm genuinely sorry, for my past behaviour.

But I would really appreciate it if you could read this and consider what I have to say. Please don’t just downvote me without at least hearing me out.

I LIKE the show for what it is, but, as an adaptation (or even “reimagining”, as it is officially), aspects of it seriously bother me.

And I do struggle with what Shirley Jackson would think of it, considering what I know about her life, and, in particular, her opinion on the 1963 film.

(Also: I apologise for reusing a few parts of one of my previous posts. But I thought I articulated things pretty well, in those paragraphs, and I REALLY did not want to go to all the effort of rephrasing things.)

Hey, there. It’s me…yet again. I've posted about this before, but I had to delete it.

First of all: I do want to sincerely apologise, for how I acted. I'm really trying to take what people said on board.

And this is probably the last time I will ever post here. For real, this time.

I didn’t respond well at all, I fully acknowledge.

People accused me of using my autism as an excuse, and, while I certainly didn’t mean to, I also accept that I was much too quick to bring it up.

That said: I was frustrated. I was sharing my genuine, complicated feelings on this show (as I have seen others do here) and I was expecting more compassion than I was given.

It’s more than “just a TV show”, for a lot of people, including myself. This sub, of all places, should understand that.

I'm well aware that the show is only very loosely inspired by the book, and acknowledged it myself in my initial post.

So, yes, I did lash out when people repeatedly pointed that out to me. It felt condescending, and, due to some traumatic experiences in my childhood, that’s not a feeling that I take well to.

I'm not excusing it, I'm just giving context.

I also am absolutely aware of the fact that deleting your post and reposting is against Reddit rules. This is literally the only time I’ve done it in six years on this platform (including two more seriously on this account)

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I first read The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson, in May of last year. And I absolutely fell in love with it.

I watched The Haunting (1963) a few weeks later, and I enjoyed that a lot, too.

(Though, a few things annoyed me. Namely, the choice to make the famous sapphic subtext less mutual, and even give Nell a moment of thinly-veiled homophobia.)

When I found out that a series based on the book existed, I was really excited. Maybe Eleanor and Theodora could finally be explicitly gay?

Wait…Nell and Theo CRAIN? It made them sisters?! I was absolutely crestfallen, for a few days, after finding that out.

It certainly didn’t make me want to watch the show, not when their relationship is the most important one in the original book.

So, yeah, things weren’t off to a good start, in terms of my relationship with the show.

======================================================================================================================

I get why the show is so popular, and I'm sure that I would have enjoyed it a million times more had I not read the book first.

There were plenty of things that I did like. I thought the acting, cinematography, atmosphere and set designs were all top-notch.

The portrayal of Luke's addiction also hit home, for me, as I have a cousin (whose name is also Luke!) who has had his life destroyed by drug use.

I thought the use of ghosts as a metaphor for mental illness was really interesting, as was the commentary on the nature of grief. And, as someone with severe depression, Theo's speech in episode eight was really relatable to me.

I lost a loved one a couple of years ago, and I can very much see this series being up younger!me's alley.

Had I watched it back then, I'm sure my feelings would be different.

Granted: I’m not much into television as a medium (I have ADHD, and strongly prefer film and literature), but still.

My only reason for comparing them, at all, was to express my feelings on the show as a derivative work. Which it is.

Also: people on this very subreddit have told me vastly different things, when I question to what extent the show is meant to be inspired by the book.

(I myself didn’t think they were meant to be different iterations of the same characters, for instance, but two people here told me that they are, and I also found interviews with Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel backing that up)

(See here, for the former. I can’t currently find the latter)

So I do find it thoroughly confusing.

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I get that a normal adaptation of the book doesn’t fit the ten-episode format, at all.

And The Haunting (1963) is an outstanding film (see my profile pic), so I also totally understand that Mike didn’t want to overshadow it.

That said, I do disagree with him on something…that Hill House had been adapted so perfectly, and so many times.

In reality: it’s only been put to film twice. (And the second time, Steven Spielberg hated it so much, he had his name scrubbed from all promotional material)

Even the first adaptation, which is the only reasonably faithful one, still made some serious changes that Shirley Jackson herself disliked.

(“In private, she bemoaned the changes made to the plot…”, to quote Ruth Franklin's biography.)

So I do struggle, a great deal, with what she’d think of the series, I've got to admit. Given it’s nothing BUT changes.

That’s also in there with me not enjoying it as much as I wish I did.

=======================================================================================================================

Finally: the show has far eclipsed the book, and made searching for anything about it impossible. Which is hard to live with.

Also, given its extreme popularity, it’s probably destroyed the possibility of any other (potentially more faithful) adaptation of Hill House, at least for the near future.

(I happen to know quite a few fans of the show, IRL, and most of them weren’t even aware that there was a book. And not a single one had read it.)

Ironically…The Turn of the Screw actually has a basically perfect film adaptation, yet has been adapted far more times. (The Innocents is definitely more faithful than The Haunting, just more detailed than the source material)

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The last time I posted here, I linked to a nice video that I found, that sums up my complex feelings on the show.

The woman who made it is a bigger fan than me, and has watched the show several times.

But the only acknowledgment I got, of it…was someone accusing me of being a paid shill. So that was nice! /s

(I simply was trying to give a shout-out to a tiny channel I discovered, in reality. So yes, I did find that particular accusation highly offensive, and an insult to not only me but also to the video's creator).

I'll link it in the comments, though, if anyone is interested. It just sums my complicated relationship with the series up far better than I could.

I found it exceptionally balanced and fair. It covers both the show's strengths and weaknesses.

It’s only twenty minutes, so please try checking it out.

I'll also add a video essay, which is almost entirely about the show (praising it), which did still include one criticism: that it’s less feminist than its source material.

===============================================================

This post is the accumulation of over a year's worth of built-up emotions, including having to scroll past dozens of posts (on Google, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok) about the show when trying to find literally anything about my favourite book.

I made a sub for the book, but, I admit, I haven’t felt very motivated to work on it.

Partially because I don’t know where to start, but also partially because anytime I DO try and look for stuff for it, I'm constantly bombarded by stuff about the show.

So please try and consider how that must feel for me. I can’t simply ignore the series, and pretend that it doesn’t exist, when it’s in my face 24/7.

There’s a lot that I DO like about it, but I really wish I could enjoy it more unequivocally. I need some kind of closure, because it’s weighing on my mind.

One last thing: I recently finished The Haunting of Bly Manor, and I enjoyed it a lot.

I thought it had some technical flaws (the pacing and some of the fake accents, namely). But it actually felt like more of a love letter to the original work, to me.

I still do prefer The Turn of the Screw and The Innocents, but what it did with its source material bothered me a lot less. (The original book being so ambiguous doesn’t hurt, but still)

So, no, I am not “anti-Mike Flanagan”, in spite of what some people have insinuated.

u/MoonlightDahling — 2 days ago

Is the final viewing a thing in the US ?

I just started the show for the first time, and was kinda weirded out by both parents and the funeral lady insisting on the young kid to have a last view on his grandmother.

Here in France the final viewing is seen as a weird and disturbing thing that only our (great-)grandparents knew when they were young, and is basically not applied since the 1940s.

So I was asking: is it really something cultural, or just for the sake of the plot ?

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u/oufalacoque — 7 days ago

THE BOOK IS SO GOOD :(

omg the haunting of hill house book

It's the saddest fucking horror story I have ever read. There is an element to classic gothic horror of pure bleak sadness and tragedy.

I never got the "it makes you feel cold" or "you feel it in your bones" and I can tear up almost thinking of it.

GO READ IT! Some minor spoilers may be below because it's just so good and I have to gush. I have notes about it's themes, motifs and symbology.

The TV show was well done and very tragic but COMPLETELY different from the book.

The book was written around/before 1965 by Shirly Jackson. It's set in a completely different time than the netflix show, Theo is just a friend of the protagonist.

They all meet there, invited by letter by a sort of eccentric doctor researching the paranormal. You're basically in the mind of the protagonist, Eleanor, and she's much different though much the same mentally isolated as Nell from the Netflix show. SO FUCKING SAD.

I had to make up my own little silver lining just to feel okay about her. You get the story pretty much from her perspective.

I'm a chill 35 year old dude that like skateboards and shit. But I'm introverted. So I related a lot to her in some ways. But the depth of someone else's life persepctive, soomeone so sad and lonely, "trapped" in their life, then coming face to face with a whole different type of gravity-dislodging ghost and a host of externalized demons.

I'll leave you with a tremendous quote from the book:

"Ambivalence of the spirit.... the demon in the mind, and that demon finds guests where it can and uses them and runs mad with laughing when it triumphs; it is the demon which is fear... something ew build ourselves and never recognize... Then it is fear itself, fear of self that... destruction of identity"

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u/Jaded_Resolve_4182 — 7 days ago

Red door tattoo

Hello, all! I had a red door tattoo for a while, and I got it redone recently. This is a picture of when it was done, so it’s a bit swollen but you can see it well! I wanted to share it in this place, I hope you all like it! :-) Done by @celesteveratattoo.

u/uncrossingtheriver — 9 days ago

S1 SPOILERS HoHH is peak horror but also…beautiful

I just finished my second re-watch about a year after seeing it for the first time. I had forgotten quite a lot of the story and it was amazing to be scared silly again. I definitely turned on all the lights at night to go to the bathroom! Truly peak horror.

What I found surprising was how beautiful and emotional the ending made me. The things Nellie said in the Red Room were so sweet but I expected that.

>!&gt;!But when Hugh reunites with Liv and Nellie, and when Clara reunites with her daughters (both in the past when Abigail first died, and then when the husband carries Clara into the house right before she dies (of old age I guess) and she is reunited with her two daughters…and the look of happiness in the husband’s eyes as he teared up seeing Clara with their daughters…idk it left me feeling more sympathetic to the house. No longer as afraid of it. Appreciative of how it lets loved ones be reunited in death (yes, death that it caused, I know lol). But still. It made me feel emotional and kind of happy. I wasn’t expecting a « happy ending » (and I use that term very loosely haha) but I think I think it makes this show even more special, and I’m glad it ended the way it did.!<!<

Anyone else feel the same way?

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u/OryxNcrake_ — 9 days ago

Father Recast?

Big fan. One of, if not thee best horror anthologies ever made.

One choice really stands out though as a complete misstep: recasting the father for the present day time period. Boy do I find that immersion breaking - and completely unnecessary.

  1. It would not have been difficult, AT ALL, to age up Henry Thomas to look 20 years older.

  2. The present day actor is not quite as good of an actor, and even if he was, his acting style and personality is completely different than Henry Thomas. The first time I watched it I was actually confused as to who he was supposed to be for a bit.

  3. He’s like 5-6 inches shorter than Henry Thomas. I’m not judging anyone by their height, but the physical resemblance between the two is non-existent.

You recast the kids, that’s a given. Completely necessary. But the recasting of the father… still a great show… but the present day scenes including the father feel jarring.

Anyone have any idea why they did that?? Strange choice.

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u/PotentialShift_ — 9 days ago
▲ 40 r/HauntingOfHillHouse+1 crossposts

Mike Flanagan and The X Files

I recently started The X files and have been bingeing it ever since. I love it! And definitely recommend it to any Flanagan fans. I started to notice some things that may have inspired & influenced Mike Flanagan's work. After a search I learned that he is a massive fan of the show. Never missing an episode during its airtime. I know of the posters in projects like Midnight Mass and few other references. But I found one that's not talked about much. So I thought I would share it with you guys and gals here.

In S1E13 'Beyond The Sea' After a visit with her parents over the holidays. Agent Scully tells her parents goodbye. Later, In her living room she sees her father sitting in the living room and she says that she thought they had left. He is speaking to her but words really aren't coming out. Very creepy moment. And then she receives a phone call from her mother saying he is dead. I thought this seemed quite familiar. In episode 1 of Hill House this very similarly happens when Steve sees Nell in his living room. And receives a call that she is dead. Scully being a sceptic and Steve being a sceptic it just all kinda clicked for me. This moment was a reference to The X Files.

What are some details in his work that may be references of the X-Files that you've noticed? Very interested in coming back and reading them when I watch the whole show of course.

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u/TheRealJFreese — 12 days ago

House of Usher: things to pay attention on a re-watch?

I loved this show and I'm planning on a second rewtach. Any things to pay attention to make for a good re-watch?

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u/senorsolo — 14 days ago