Netflix’s New “Haunting of Hill House” Gave Us a Lesbian Who Lives, Took Our Whole Weekend

It’s a busy month for horror fans, with new releases both in theaters and on streaming platforms, but it’s worth it to make time for the Netflix re-imagining of classic The Haunting of Hill House. You’ve likely heard by now that it isn’t a faithful reproduction of the original, and that’s true! But it’s worth it, and for more reasons than just the lesbian character. (Also, though, for the lesbian character.)

In the mid-90’s, the Crain family moved into the ancient Hill House mansion with the intent to fix it up, flip it and move out over the course of eight weeks. They don’t make it that long, with Hugh Crain escaping with his children one mysterious, horrifying night that sees his wife die mysteriously inside the house. Now, the house has stood empty for over 20 years, but the five Crain siblings — sensitive twins Nell and Luke; tough, brooding Theo; uptight Shirley and asshole celebrity writer Steven — are finding that the house won’t let them go until they face what really happened in it.

The Hill House adaptation, as others have noted, is only nominally related both to the original and to Shirley Jackson’s school of horror in general. Instead of six strangers entering Hill House, the story begins with six people leaving it in terror in the middle of the night and spending the rest of their lives trying to put the pieces back together. As genuinely interested in the occult and supernatural as she was, Jackson usually landed solidly in the camp of human nature being the true terror. While Haunting of Hill House definitely explores that theme — watching how callously the older siblings can wave off the struggles of the deeply traumatized twins is a trip! — its take is ultimately more empathetic than Jackson usually aimed for. The cruelty of the living characters in Netflix’s vision is borne out of their own pain, fear and damage, as opposed to the petty sort of genuine evil that Jackson saw in so many people (“The Lottery” is an accessible example). For devotees of Jackson and the original text, there are plenty of little superficial nods; the siblings’ names are taken from the original characters and Shirley herself, and the show keeps the book’s incomparable opening lines (although puts them in the mouth of Steve, an unfortunate downgrade):

“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 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.”

Also making it through relatively intact from the original Haunting is Theo, the psychic, self-assured brunette in smart trousers who is also understood to be a lesbian. Hattie writes about what made Theo such a remarkable character for her time:

“…she’s smart, has some great lines (and great style — lots of black and even *gasp* trousers) — she beats Luke at cards, which his aunt has already said is an impossibility. She isn’t married, or anything like Eleanor (who is financially dependent on her sister and brother in law) and she seems far more confident and perceptive than the other characters — okay maybe the psychic abilities help. Basically Theo kicks ass… In horror we’re so used to seeing women as victims or as evil, but Theo is neither. …there is no moral judgement placed on Theo — she doesn’t die. The house doesn’t punish her for her sexuality.”

A tiny lesbian

Theo’s lesbianism is no longer subtextual in the adaptation; in the first episode we watch her take home the beautiful, tattooed Trish from a Boston-area nightclub, and immediately afterward whip out some truly impressive emotional unavailability. (If the lesbian sex doesn’t tip you off to her sexual orientation, Theo’s persistent focus on “having boundaries” as a pretext for being emotionally shut down will!) Poor Trish is confused about why they can’t talk about their feelings after sex, and hurt that Theo kicks her out immediately afterwards (while wrapped in a flannel, duh). That’s Theo’s whole thing, though. There’s no hint that Theo grows up with any overt messaging about shame over being gay, but we can see her keeping everyone at arm’s length from childhood on. Her psychic power is the ability to know things about people and events through touch, something that overwhelms her as a little girl until her mother gifts her a pair of gloves. She moves through life like that afterward, gloved in more ways than one — protecting herself from feeling too much, and simultaneously afraid of what will happen if she succeeds. The impossible tension makes her coil tight, constantly tensed; “a clenched fist with hair,” her brother describes her.

In many ways Theo’s sexuality is played as incidental to her character; her family is a little surprised but not upset when they learn about it, and despite Theo’s melodramatic performance of emotional stonewalling, her and Trish’s not-quite-relationship is maybe one of the more functional on the show. (It’s kind of a low bar!) But her relationship to intimacy feels honest and sad, true to her specific identity; a gesture at Shane-like lesbian fuckboy behavior made more nuanced with a view on how scared Theo has a right to be about how to move through the world feeling what she does. Although the show’s monologues aren’t generally its strongest point, Theo’s hits home; and if her epilogue feels a little too easy, it’s hard to be mad about that (after all, she lives!).

The new Haunting of Hill House is aimed at fans of contemporary horror like The Babadook or It Follows, films that really dive into the human trauma and grief that accompany horror, often bordering on the allegorical. Hill House succeeds with that effort most when it’s able to evoke the genuine, sick terror of not being able to tell when something is real or imagined, a real experience or just what you hope or fear most. It’s weaker when it leans too hard on the allegorical; a house is like a body, a marriage is like a house, all of them can be haunted; by the time Steve explains these things out loud in the finale, the point has already been sufficiently made over the previous nine episodes. Sometimes its psychological take on haunting makes a messy marriage with its outer scaffolding of classic gothic horror; the device of having us wonder whether any given horror is a product of the haunted house or crazed grief only works when the show feels in control of it, for instance. As is so often the case with television, the show gambles and loses a bit on the interest of its male characters’ relationships. Skeptical eldest brother Steve is just a fundamentally frustrating character who doesn’t work well as an entry point for the audience, and it’s unfortunate that so much time at the emotionally busy finale is spent on his relationship with his dad.

The new adaptation doesn’t feel particularly Jacksonian, but she’d likely appreciate its successes anyway; after all, she too was a frazzled mother of a gaggle of kids whose husband infantilized her and largely ruined her life. It’s not far off to call it “a spooky This Is Us,” but that isn’t a bad thing; at its best moments, the humanity and sadness of The Haunting of Hill House work along with the horror to make the relationships as memorable as the jump scares.

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Rachel

Originally from Boston, MA, Rachel now lives in the Midwest. Topics dear to her heart include bisexuality, The X-Files and tacos. Her favorite Ciara video is probably "Ride," but if you're only going to watch one, she recommends "Like A Boy." You can follow her on twitter and instagram.

Rachel has written 1142 articles for us.

17 Comments

  1. I *adore* horror and I am so excited to check this out after your overview! I haven’t seen the original (I came late to the genre, so have some gaps in my classics knowledge), but it sounds like they’re pretty solidly their own things. I’m in the middle of my annual Shocktober movie marathon where I watch one horror film a day in October and I’ve been focusing on horror series and it’s been a trip—currently on The Conjuring, which takes place 30 min from where I live—spoooooky

  2. Wow this review has peaked my interest and I’m particularly glad to read that they kept Theo’s gayness. I loved the original movie but was sorry they didn’t play up Eleanor’s falling in love with Theo, which to me was very important in the book (even though it turned into a BYG trope at the end with Eleanor’s death)

    I’m quite a woos but I’ll give this series a try ! Don’t take bets on how many times I hide under the covers or run from the room please, that would be too embarrassing.

    • – Shirley finding out that Theo is a lesbian is one of the best moments in the entire series.
      – One of the things that’s truly spooky about this series is that there are ghosts standing around unobtrusively in the background of most episodes. The show calls them hidden ghosts, and the Twitter page has a Hidden Ghost count for the episodes. https://twitter.com/haunting/status/1051156592484212736
      – There are other things besides the Hidden Ghosts. I noticed in one scene that there are two statues in a hallway. They both face down the hallway, but moments later when you see them again, one of the statues is facing the other way.

  3. Ep 8 contained 2 of my worst fears and ruined my weekend, but I loved it!

    Really really really appreciated the Theo character.

  4. Literally all I watched was the intro before I had to turn it off, and just the intro ensured I had trouble falling asleep for two nights afterwards :-D I’M NOT GOOD WITH GHOST STUFF OKAY

  5. No lies, I watched this in one day. I really appreciated how they treated Theo (could have done without the subplot at the funeral in the basement storage room), and I wished that the whole show could have been about the disaster lesbians :( I loved that she got to exist in a horror series that was scary as hell as well as thoughtful.

    • I also really enjoyed the monologues and thought the show’s writing shone through those moments. The story opening with Steve’s skepticism also frustrated me, but as the show went on, I think it became clear that no one thought the ghosts weren’t real, just that they wished they weren’t. Steve’s repression of the ghosts is his own particular story arc, and it served to address the question of whether the ghosts are real or imagined is really at the heart of a lot of inquiry into the epistemology of horror and Gothic. I really liked that the show took the audience through a journey that showed that just because characters had mental illness didn’t mean that they couldn’t discern reality–rather, that their mental illness is exacerbated by the trauma of their lives and they continued to be haunted by a very real manifestation of their traumas.

  6. I loved the book Haunting Of Hill House and this article is so great at comparing the new show and the book! Thank you! I’m so pumped to start this show tonight!

  7. I loved this show so much, even though its given me nightmares ever since I started watching it ? I like that Theo’s character starts out as the “Shane” trope (I still love you Shane), but then we find out how intelligent and successful she is, which is something I feel like we don’t really get to see with that type of character a lot. Also, she’s a babe

  8. This show is amazing and I love this character! Also, shoutout to Carla Gugino’s intense Mommi vibes throughout.

  9. Ok this is very late (just finished the show and wanted to avoid reviews until then), but this review is SO good.

    I died at “The new adaptation doesn’t feel particularly Jacksonian, but she’d likely appreciate its successes anyway; after all, she too was a frazzled mother of a gaggle of kids whose husband infantilized her and largely ruined her life.”

  10. Steve is so annoying there should have been a content warning for ‘gas-lighting older brother who thinks his egotistical explanation for everything is absolute truth’

    One thing which hasn’t been mentioned (this is not a spoiler but contains info about Theo’s job which are revealed in episode 3) is that Theo is a healer. I love that she struggles with boundaries in real life but put her sensitivity to good use by becoming a child psychologist. It’s very gay of her to want to guide and heal wounded souls in the purest manner (with that handshake!). She’s the typical wounded healer, the queermo who’s known from a young age that society / family will be harmful to the individual and who’s already grieved the idea of a ‘normal life’ a long time ago <3

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