I have to admit that I did not expect much of the Netflix re-imagining of The Haunting of Hill House. There is always a feeling of dread when you hear of an old favourite being revived and after the atrocity of The Haunting (1999), featuring Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta Jones, I can’t say that my hopes were high.
I can’t be the only one who started watching Ep 1 confused out of my mind because I didn’t expect certain elements to have changed. Why are Theodora, Luke, and Eleanor siblings? What does this mean for the queer subtext? Who are Shirley and Steve? Why is Hugh Crain their parent rather than an oppressive spectral force? Once I got my head around all of this, I found that the changes in this adaptation have kept the story refreshing and I loved every minute… even if I was hiding behind a pillow for a lot of it.
Despite the changes, there are still enough aspects and references from the original story to cause a nerd like myself to constantly flail in excitement and annoy their partner (sorry Georgia!). The use of the opening and closing paragraphs in the first and final scenes of the series was a beautiful choice, especially with that one minor word change that alters the entire mood of the ending. I was already on the verge of tears when faced with the finale, and by the time Steve finished stating “whatever walked there walked together” I was sobbing.
So I’ve already made it clear how much I love this version, but I do have to bring this back to a question I asked above: “What does this mean for the queer subtext?”
So Theodora, Luke, and Eleanor are not siblings in the novel, and are actually strangers thrown together as part of a spooky experiment. And whilst Eleanor does appear to have some form of attraction to Luke, it cannot be denied that her relationship with Theodora is given more attention. Shirley Jackson could not explicitly state the queerness of her characters due to the attitudes of society at the time. But she was an exceptional writer, one who could hint at affection and attraction between characters with such subtlety that it could go unmissed by her original audience. Whilst consistently calling Theodora “lovely” and “charming”, Eleanor also finds ways to get her attention or even to just look at her; as we see here:
"Eleanor found herself unexpectedly admiring her own feet. Theodore dreamed over the fire just beyond the tips of her toes, and Eleanor thought with deep satisfaction that her feet were handsome in their red sandals"
Theodora herself is also written as queer, arguable more obviously than Eleanor is. Theodora lives with her “friend”, who gave her a gift with a “loving, teasing inscription”, and we learn that she returns to them after leaving the house. She also gives Eleanor several physical acts of affection throughout the course of the story, and even tells her “By the time I'm through with you, you will be a different person”.
As this subtext is technically non-explicit, and also considering the current media climate, I was expecting either the exclusion of queer representation at worst or a queer character death at best; the latter does happen in the original novel, after all. Yet after spotting a tweet by Dana Piccoli, confirming that there was indeed a major lesbian character, I allowed myself to get at least a little bit more excited about the series. However I did still warn a couple of friends that, should they watch the show, they may have to expect the death of a queer character. Eleanor has always been the one to die in this story. In the book and the 1963 film adaptation, the house does not let her leave despite the other characters efforts; she sadly meets her death by driving her car into a tree. In more recent adaptations, notably Anthony Neilson’s 2015 stage adaptation at the Liverpool Playhouse as well as the Netflix series, she dies from hanging after she climbs the spiral staircase.
I do find it interesting that Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House completely skips past any possibility of Nell being queer. Her story with Arthur was moving and, of course, she could still have experienced some queer feelings outside of this relationship; but there is absolutely nothing to suggest it. I have to point out her reaction upon finding out about Theo when she trails off with “I didn’t know you were into…” and smiles with acceptance rather than a “Girl, same!”. Nell’s relationship with Theo also has less weight than that of Nell and Luke, who have their special twin bond.
In contrast to how Nell is portrayed, we are gifted with the badass lesbian character in the form of Theo Crain. She is funny, flirty, and fearless, and she produces some of my favourite lines from the show. The biggest shock is that she *gasp* doesn’t die?? She actually survives the house and manages to break down her emotional walls; which she shows us by throwing away her gloves at the end, in the very same scene that tells us that she gets her girl at the end. I have yet to talk about The Haunting of Hill House with anyone who doesn’t think that Theo is fantastic representation of an LBT+ character.
We move from the ambiguity of the novel towards two extremes in the adaptation. In avoiding the Bury Your Gays trope, Nell’s queerness has been erased; yet Theo steps out of the shadow of subtext to become her own proud character. So I guess the question now would be: would you count this as a victory in terms of representation?
- Emma
The Haunting of Hill House novel is availble to buy on Amazon and Waterstones, the tv series is availble to stream on Netflix.