Books vs. Movies
In this podcast we set out to answer the age old question: is the book really always better than the movie?
Books vs. Movies
Ep. 47 The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson vs. The Haunting (1999)
That age-old question haunts every book lover who's watched their favorite novel get adapted to film: "Is the book really better?" For Shirley Jackson's masterpiece "The Haunting of Hill House" and its 1999 film adaptation "The Haunting," the answer is complicated by fascinating behind-the-scenes copyright issues that forced filmmakers to create something almost entirely different from both the source novel and the beloved 1963 film adaptation.
Orlando and I dive into this strange case study, exploring how a psychologically complex novel about a lonely woman named Eleanor finding belonging in a subtly unsettling house transformed into a bombastic late-90s horror film featuring ghost children, CGI griffins, and Catherine Zeta-Jones in increasingly revealing outfits. The discussion reveals how the film's inability to officially remake the 1963 version led to bizarre creative choices - from making Eleanor a direct descendant of the house's builder to filling the mansion with elaborate supernatural rooms that defy architectural logic.
What makes this comparison particularly interesting is how the changes shift the entire nature of the story. Jackson's novel leaves readers questioning how much of the haunting might exist in Eleanor's mind, creating an enduring sense of unease about Hill House itself. The film discards this ambiguity entirely, presenting explicit supernatural manifestations and a clear villain in Hugh Crane (not Craine, as in the book), culminating in an effects-heavy showdown involving the literal gates of hell installed in the mansion for reasons never adequately explained.
Despite their criticism of the adaptation, we both acknowledge our nostalgic attachment to the 1999 film and suggest it can be enjoyed as campy entertainment if viewed completely separate from its source material. Whether you're a literary horror fan or just curious about the adaptation process, this episode offers a fascinating look at how Hollywood transforms subtle psychological terror into something very, very different. Ready to decide which version of Hill House you'd rather visit? Listen now and join the conversation about books, movies, and the strange journeys between them.
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Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set out to answer the age-old question is the book really always better than the movie? I'm Yuvia, an actress and book lover based out of New York City and today Orlando, and I will be talking about the Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and its 1999 adaptation, the Haunting. So let's just get the elephant out of the room. We are aware that there is a much better adaptation. We've seen the original adaptation from the 60s.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 60s, my favorite, one of my favorite movies of all time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're aware that it exists. We recommend that's the one you want you watch. But this is what was available on streaming, the 1999 version. So that's the one that we're reviewing. And boy, oh boy, is it really bad.
Speaker 1:But you know, I remember we saw the dvd, like my mom and I, when we were at like target or something. This is a while ago. And she's like oh, I'm gonna buy this movie for you because it reminds me of you, because I loved that movie as a kid. That was like the first horror movie. Well, I was gonna say the first horror movie that I tolerated, but that's not true because I loved chucky as a kid. Yeah, but, like, after my chucky phase, my demented child phase was over and I couldn't watch scary movies because I was scared of them.
Speaker 1:The haunting was like the first one I remember watching and tolerating and liking, and I showed it to like my cousin, I showed it to everyone. That was like coming over, I loved it. So, like my mom was like it reminds me of you, and I was like I used to like that movie, but then I watched the original in the 60s and now I don't like this one anymore and she's like oh, so she didn't buy it for me. But now I'm kind of sad that I didn't let her buy it for me because it's really bad, but it holds a special place in my heart. So, yeah, I kind of wish I had let her buy it for me for me.
Speaker 2:That movie, oddly enough, gave me nightmares that's so funny because we're so switched now we're so opposites. But yeah, as a kid I remember that movie giving me nightmares and my mom changed a lot but I will say I, I think I'm, I'm discovering that I don't hate horror films.
Speaker 1:I I do have my limits. As I've said, if there's demonic possession, devils and I'm out, I'm out like that legitimately terrifies me. But I think it's not and I don't like slashers. I just think. But you don't really like slashers either no, they're not my favorite genre.
Speaker 2:It's very rare that I see a slasher and I'm like that was really good yeah, so I think I think for me it's.
Speaker 1:It's not that I don't like horror. I think horror just irritates me, because I hate when people are making dumb mistakes, and that's like what horror is.
Speaker 2:When 90% of slasher movies is that, yeah, running the wrong way, getting yourself stuck in the basement. So it makes sense.
Speaker 1:So if it's like more of a psychological thriller or psychological horror, that's what I'm really into. Thriller or psychological horror, that's what I'm really into. But anyway, that's not. We're here to talk about the haunting of hill house. So, orlando, why don't you tell everyone what the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson is about?
Speaker 2:yeah uh, the haunting of hill house by shirley jack, who has quickly become one of my favorite authors. It's about Eleanor, who gets an invitation to be a part of this experiment, this experiment by Dr Montague. Dr Montague is basically gathering people who have either had a close encounter with death or some sort of paranormal life of some sort to kind of conduct an experiment at Hill House. Eleanor has just come fresh from the mother that she took care of passing away. She basically dedicated her life to this and this is her first time doing things on her own. And things happen at the house which we'll get into.
Speaker 1:The 1999 version, the Haunting directed by Jan de Bont, I think, is how you pronounce it, or Jan de Bont, maybe. It stars Lily Taylor, catherine Seda-Jones, liam Neeson and Owen Wilson, and it's nothing what he just described. So these four participants are asked to go to Hill House and they are unknowingly participating in a psychological study on mass hysteria, but they're told that it is a study on insomnia. But I discovered after watching the remake that there's a reason why it's so different and that is that, due to the rights, due to copyright reasons, they were not allowed to officially call this a remake of the Haunting. They weren't even allowed to use any like, pay homage to the original in any way. Like they couldn't, because you know how a lot of like remakes have like they recreate the one iconic scene from the original in any way. Like they couldn't, because you know how a lot of like remakes have like they recreate the one iconic scene from the original yeah um, so they're not.
Speaker 1:They were not allowed to like reference the original in any way. So essentially they had to say this was a new interpretation of the haunting impale house, which is how they got away with it. But that's why it's so different and that is why the adaptation is a really bad adaptation, because it has nothing to do with the book really that makes me wonder, because there is a tv series, there's the netflix series um same title, right haunting of hill house.
Speaker 2:Um, I started it I only got two or three episodes in because I got frustrated that it was nothing at all like the book. But now I'm wondering if they had to deal with the same issue I don't think so.
Speaker 1:I it's my understanding that this is that was mike flanagan. That was the direction he wanted to take it in. I could be wrong, but I think, like the rights the copyright infringement rights from the original already expired so they could have made a faithful adaptation, but I think Mike Flanagan just wanted to do his own thing. So, yeah, I haven't seen it. He tried watching it, but it is Everyone that's seen it and hasn't read the book says it's a really good TV show. But because he said it was just such a bad adaptation, he wasn't really interested in watching it. And I don't know that I'm interested in watching it for that reason. That isn't to say that it's a bad show. It's just a bad adaptation.
Speaker 2:I also had just finished reading the book, or, and then decided, oh, I just finished the book, not to watch the series, so I haven't given. I haven't tried watching it since having space between stuff. So I don't know, maybe I need to give it again more time before trying again, because now we're doing this. So I'm still. It's still gonna be fresh in my mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So, wow, I don't even know where to begin because this is so, so different, and I guess I I'll start off by saying that, yeah, the the in the book, um, eleanor, theo and luke are all aware of what they're participating in. They weren't tricked. And in the in the film, they're being told I said that they're there to help them with their insomnia troubles, to maybe find a cure for their insomnia. It's a study on insomnia that's going to benefit them with better sleep. And then they end up discovering, once Eleanor starts getting screwed up mentally, that it's a study on mass hysteria.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I have my notes. I don't know how. We want to go bit by bit.
Speaker 1:We can just talk about it.
Speaker 2:And like so in the in the film also, Liam Neeson is the one that plays the character of Dr.
Speaker 1:Montague, except in the film he's called Dr Merrill. Yeah, in the this film that weren't well so in in the book there's um, it's, it's the core group of four of theo, eleanor, luke and dr montague. And then a few days later, dr montague's wife shows up along with arthur, who's a teacher. They're really good friends. She's totally cheating on dr montague's wife shows up along with arthur, who's a teacher. They're really good friends. She's totally cheating on dr montague with arthur like she.
Speaker 1:They're really close friends but it's just no, they're more than friends. It's like your husband's not very observant, but the wife is in the original adaptation, but Arthur isn't. And then what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Arthur's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, arthur's not, but in the 1999 version there are two characters. They're not Mrs Montague and Arthur, but I think they're placeholders for them. They're just random. Her name is Mary and then I forgot the name of the guy and they're Dr Merrow's research assistants, but they're gone after the first night.
Speaker 2:I guess it's the opposite In the book. They come at the end. In this case, they come at the end.
Speaker 1:In this case, they come at the beginning and quickly disappear yeah, and it's one of those things where like conveniently the, because there's two caretakers, mr and mrs dudley. Mr dudley's in charge of like the grounds and mrs dudley is in charge of the inside of the house, so they're the only ones that have keys to the, to the like main gates to Hill House, and then when they leave at the end of the day they they lock up and they they're out. So like that's one of the things they emphasize is like once we're gone, like you're on your own until we come back in the morning, like you're on your own until we come back in the morning, but in the adaptation, conveniently, there's an extra set of keys that um, after mary suffers an accident that requires the male assistant to like drive her into town, to the hospital. There they conveniently have that extra pair of keys so they can leave, but they never come back, which is like her injury would have just required stitches, so theoretically she could have come back in the morning.
Speaker 2:but yeah, and this is also. I feel like that this was a 90s trend of taking old movies and glorifying them, and this is an example of it in the adaptation and even in the original. But in the book there's really no major gory deaths, there's no blood, there's no gore, and this one there is a couple of instances of it happening. That's the first one where basically a piano wire hits her in the eye, but, like you said, it's a cut.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And probably get stitched up, go home. It's not a spend the rest of the night away.
Speaker 1:Well, spend the rest of the week away.
Speaker 2:That's right. They never come back and they're there for a whole week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's yeah. So it's like what's the point of these characters? Just to get injured and show that the house is haunted? I guess yeah, pretty much. And the other we're going to jump way ahead in the film. The other death is Luke's death. Luke dies in this adaptation, but he doesn't die in the book.
Speaker 2:No, and in the book one of the cool things about Luke is that he's actually related to the people who own the house and part of his thing is proving that there's no such thing as ghosts in this house. Because he's a non-believer, he doesn't believe it, so he has that emotional tie to the house and kind of a little bit of a business interest in it. In this one, luke is I made the joke of a random backpacker who just kind of showed up but he's the other death when he decides to challenge the house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's the other death when he decides to challenge the house. Yeah, there's Now, is now. Or Eleanor, Eleanor, now is the same person. So if we call her Eleanor, if we call her now, it's the same character. But yeah, in the in the beginning of the book she has like the worst sister. I mean she just has like the worst relationship with her family. But she's invited to participate in the study Like her mother. She was her mother's caretaker for many years. Her mother just died and so when she gets the invitation to go to Hell House she's telling her sister like please, let me take the car so I can go to Hell House, and her sister's like hell, no. So essentially she steals her sister's car and drives herself to Hell House, and in the film she has the car already yeah, like the sister's so nice.
Speaker 2:At the beginning of the film she's like here's the car. Um, I think you should move in with us, because she knows, she's aware that you know, this whole thing happened with the mom. It's a very different dynamic. In the book the sister is mean. The brother-in-law is horrible to her. I cannot not talk about that kid though. Jeez Louise, that kid is annoying. Oh my god.
Speaker 1:We're talking about Eleanor's nephew. We have three nieces and one nephew and, like, they're about this kid's age and they are not annoying and we're we're not being biased like if I had an annoying nephew I'd I'd say it. I mean maybe not because not publicly in the podcast, because, like my brother listens, but if, like, I would definitely tell Orlando and I'd be like yo, that kid is a spoiled brat and I can't stand them.
Speaker 2:If that kid was my nephew, I'd willingly live in her house. I'd rather deal with the little ghost children than that kid, which leads to another difference Ghost children.
Speaker 1:There's no ghost children in the book. There's no children in the book. Yeah, there's no children involved at all. The children are such a major plot point of the 1999 adaptation, this whole thing of like hugh crane wanted to fill the house with the sounds of children and he like carved these really scary looking children everywhere in the house and yeah, there's no, there's no ghost children. There's no children there's. I mean, hugh crane does did lose a child, uh, in the in the book, but it wasn't. He wasn't so obsessed with filling the house with the sounds of children and his wife just kept or his children just kept dying on him, and so he resorted to killing and kidnapping children the way he did in this adaptation yeah, yeah, that was a weird change and there's so many ghost children and the cgi image of the what.
Speaker 2:What is that? The bed? The? Is it the? The bed frame that has the kid?
Speaker 1:carvings, yeah, yeah sometimes got funny it did. But on, like I don't know how anyone could sleep in that, but like if that was, if all these like scary children carvings were like just above my head, I would not be able to sleep.
Speaker 2:I think I'd I'd, yeah, yeah, um yeah, uh, one of the changes that bothered me at the beginning also was um eleanor gets a phone call that tells her look at this ad on the newspaper and that's where she finds the ad of this experiment. They're calling it insomnia and that's what motivates her to call and participate. The reason it ends up bothering me is because, towards the end, obviously you the plot twist discovery is um, it's not even a plot twist because the audience has known, not along, but that's when um dr monk, montague, dr merrill, dr merrill reveals, reveals what's actually been happening and she's like no, but you called me and told me. So he's like nobody called you and I'm like the house called her, the ghost children called her, like who called her then?
Speaker 1:Well, I guess I'm guessing it was Hugh Crane that called her because she thinks Dr Like if she heard the voice of a child.
Speaker 2:True, so it would have to be so ghost Hugh Crane calls her.
Speaker 1:And tells her look at the ad in the newspaper. But one thing I forgot to bring up when you were talking about how mean the sister and the brother-in-law are in the book everyone is so mean to Eleanor in the book it really bugged me Like they were so mean to her for no reason. So I will say that is. One change I liked in this adaptation and in the original adaptation is that people were a lot nicer to her because they're like theo is like nice to her when they initially meet and then out of nowhere in the book is just like can you stop? Like I don't like you don't go with me, I don't like, I don't like you, like just just. She just like gets mean to her out of nowhere. Yeah, and that just like there was. I mean I don't know, there wasn't anything about eleanor. That was like why is everyone just hating on this lady so much? She's?
Speaker 2:so, yeah, like she's a strange person, but because of you know what she's dealt with with the mother. She's not as socially what she's dealt with with the mother. She's not as socially. What's the word? Normalized I guess. But there's nothing really wrong. She never says anything wrong People. Just she seems to be the kind of person that people just hate for no reason. So I will agree, I did like the change in Theo, because Theo was mean in the book and there were scenes where I was like, why do you care about Theo? And in the movie you do see a lot of care, focusing specifically on this adaptation. Theo cares a lot. Theo actually cares a lot about her.
Speaker 2:There is some issues with Theo's character in this adaptation. Um, there's always been a conversation of the underlying bisexuality of theo. Uh, that has been something that's been studied in the book, which kind of briefly gets into that in the movie. Um, in this movie though, in the 1990 movie, it felt like they were, they needed to state it. Every other sentence it was like did I mention I'm bisexual? By the way, I like women? It was like every other sentence. Um, also, it's captain seda jones, so let's, let's put her as revealing as we possibly can, every single second. Let's over sexualize this character as much as we can yeah, for sure, and there.
Speaker 1:There another thing that's very different in this adaptation. Is that? Um so any of the uh haunting aspects, the paranormal aspects that's what I'm looking for any of all the paranormal things happen at night only. In the film they happen during the day and sometimes at night mainly at night, but there are some like incidences that happen during the day, and in the book it's pretty much exclusively just at night. I think the only thing that happens during the day is they find the Welcome Home, eleanor. Yes, painting yeah, but that's it Everything. Like there's so many like Eleanor sees something in the chimney and then she one of Hugh Crane's ex-wives talks to her through in the form of a book that happens in the day. Hugh Crane did have a wife that tragically died very young in the book, but there was no second wife, right.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was no second wife who ran away with the baby that ended up being Eleanor's ancestor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that's another difference, and this one, eleanor's, related to yeah, because that's another difference. In this one, eleanor's related to Ukraine. I don't really know what the purpose behind that was, because it leads to a really funny line at the end, where what does she say? Come and get me, grandpa, yeah.
Speaker 1:She's talking to ghosts to ukraine and is just like come on, grandpa, or something I don't know I was expecting that from ukraine, um, but yeah, that is uh.
Speaker 2:so, because of all the changes, you don't really get to know that the tree where the carriage had an accident and that is where the wife dies ends up being the same tree that Eleanor crashes into at the end and dies so in in in the film she so, yes, in the book she dies by after crashing to the same tree that hugh crane's wife's carriage crashed into.
Speaker 1:So they die the same way. In the film she dies, she confronts. I don't know why this. There's okay, hugh Grant, hugh Grant, hugh Grant, hugh Crane built everything in this house. He, like hand, chose it, selected it to keep the wonder of the children alive, or whatever. There's one thing that's out of place and that is this door that represents, um, mainly hell.
Speaker 2:There's like a little like a glimpse of heaven at the top, but then, um, it mainly represents like purgatory and then hell, and there's like two guards, hell guards yeah, I think it's supposed to be like the divine comedy, right, it's, it's hell, purgatory and heaven, and then the quote I believe is straight out of the divine comedy okay um but the there's children carvings in hell and it's just like oh, the, these hell guards are preventing the children from going to heaven.
Speaker 1:And so at the end, when Eleanor's like, come and get me grandpa Again, I don't know why this man built, like, why would you build doors in your house that represent the gates of hell? Because that's how they end up defeating Hugh Crane. Eleanor leads him to the doors and he gets caught by the hell guards and so he becomes part of the door.
Speaker 2:And it's the children. Right, the children goes like it's the door. Lead him to the door.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's the door. Lead him to the door.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's like wait. So hugh crane built this house and added a door that he said this is going to capture me one day or just maybe he didn't, he wasn't thinking it was going to capture him, but like, why, I don't know what?
Speaker 1:like maybe he was trying to scare the children, I don't know, but I'm just like that. Why would, why would you build doors that are metaphorically and ultimately literally, the gates to hell in your house? I don't know, but, um, uh, yeah, so that's, that's so. She leads into the door, he gets caught by the guards of hell and then, once he's caught, and all the, all the little ghost children that are trapped in these hell doors start coming out and are just like thank you Eleanor, thank you Eleanor. And then she just dies, she's just like. And then she floats up to heaven with the children.
Speaker 2:I think you're meant to believe that Hugh Crane launched her into the door and that's how she died. It never was clear why exactly. She just kind of died.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's just. She leads Hugh Crane to the door and then she just dies. Maybe she went the route of Padme Amidala and lost her will to live.
Speaker 1:Or it was like she completed her, been her, she finished her business and then she wanted to be with the children, um, because that she didn't want to stay on earth with her family, which I would understand in the book, but in the film, like Theo actually offered her to like you don't need to go back to your sister if you don't want to, like come back and live with me, and so like she has like a nice prospect of like I have a friend and and yeah, so yeah because that's another big character change where, like in the book, she really really has nothing.
Speaker 2:The sister hates her, the brother-in-law hates her, she's probably going to get in trouble for stealing the car, theo hates her, luke doesn't care. So she really has nothing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the only thing that's brought her some sort of what's the word I'm looking for Some sort of importance, are these ghosts that she's seeing in this house and this belief that to the house she is important In the movie you don't have that. She's got a lot of prospects. She could really move on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's not really clear. She just she dies, her heart stops. Maybe she was more scared than she realized and her heart stopped, I don't know. But anyway, there is a very important scene that happens in the library, and there's no library in this, in this hill house.
Speaker 1:it's like ukraine you built everything except the library no, instead this scene happens at a greenhouse yeah, so there's like a spiral staircase that in this house is really old in both the book and the film, but in it in the book, like the, the spiral staircase starts detaching itself from the wall and eleanor has managed to climb all the way up to the top and luke is the one that begrudgingly goes to save her. In the adaptation, it's dr marrow who, like the, the spiral staircase, just like starts separating from each other. It's not attached to the wall, it's just hanging from the air and it starts detaching and the cables start falling apart.
Speaker 1:So then, dr Mero is the one that goes up the stairs to save her.
Speaker 2:Which again that scene in the book. It serves its purpose. They're trying to rescue Eleanor, but I remember in the movie part of the funny thing is that it starts falling apart and it ends up being Eleanor having to rescue Montague and then, once she rescues them, they're still at the top and then all of a sudden cut to the next scene. They're safe. We never see how they got down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was no. In the book the stairs are coming to become detached from the wall, but Luke and Eleanor managed to make their way up and back down by going very, very slowly. So they do manage to get down without those staircase falling on them. In the in the film there's they reach the top and then there's nowhere to go. So it's like how did they get down? Did they like find vines up there that they just swung down tarzan style?
Speaker 2:I don't know and if there was another opening, it's why did you go up that opening instead of going up that dangerous spiral staircase that makes zero?
Speaker 1:sense? Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I guess another character that I found differences in is the house. I'm going to call the character, the house, a character. In the book. The house is very much described as a regular creepy looking house and part of the house is very much described as a regular creepy looking house, and part of the description is that this house is massive and because of the way the house feels, you easily get lost. It's just that it feels heavy. It's a very intense building so you can easily get lost in there, and there's a lot of scenes in which they're like I don't even know how I got here. These rooms are confusing. They took that very literally in the movie. Now, the exterior is gorgeous, the exterior is very beautiful, but once you're inside, suddenly there's a room that's a river that you have to jump over blocks to get to. The other side there's a room that's like a mirror maze and then there's the what is it? The carousel?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's a carousel inside a room and then there's the nursery, which the nursery is important in both book and the movie, but they took a weird design for the interior of the house. There's a lot of statues, like you already mentioned, the little girl, and one of my favorite moments now fighting a griffin, now straight up, is fighting a stone griffin, because the griffin comes to life, and I think that's where, towards the end of the movie, I'm like, wow, we got there. She's straight up attacking a griffin yeah, um, and her uh.
Speaker 1:Her attachment to the house is literal in the film in that she's the descendant of Hugh Crane and like this whole backstory that we kind of touched upon. But Hugh Crane had a second wife that no one knew about somehow, and that second wife gave birth to what ended up being Eleanor's great-great-grandma. But after she gave birth she ran away somehow without Hugh Crane knowing, and then eventually, along the line, I guess she'd probably never talked to her kids about Hugh Crane, because he would talk about that man to them and yeah, so until Eleanor was born and all of a sudden Eleanor's the one that Hugh Crane is. Like that's the one I'm gonna call back to the house. I don't know why I've never called anyone else to come to the house. But yeah anyway.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's. It's a very literal attachment and Orlando can talk more about the attachment in the book, but it's not a literal like she's related to the house the way she is in the film.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and in the book again it's a little bit more psychological, as we have mentioned, like now has dealt with taking care of the mom for the rest end of her life and unfortunately this is something that is very serious, that happens to a lot of people. They end up spending the rest of their life taking care of a parent, at which point they're no longer living their life and that is what now was living. She was living for her mother and part of the guilt that now feels is that the mom was like ringing the bell for help and now decided this time I'm not going and that's when the mom dies. So there's also like a lot of psychological sense going on inside.
Speaker 2:Now she well, as we mentioned, she has nothing at home, the sister doesn't like her and there's no friend that's offering her a place to stay.
Speaker 2:So she literally has nowhere to go and this house becomes an invitation for her and and she suddenly feels the purpose, she feels the reasoning to live essentially is through this house. And then you have the house popping up with signs that say it doesn't say welcome, it says her name and she's starting to feel that these attachments are getting for her specifically, these manifestations are looking for her specifically and she realizes that this house is where her future kind of lives, and so that's where you get into like a little bit of psychological uh, the psychological thriller of it, where you begin to wonder how much of it was haunting, how much of it was actually in Eleanor's head, how much of it was her desperately wanting to become part of the house, until you get to the end where she permanently becomes part of the house by dying in it, so that it's a very different attachment. And sure, psychological things can be difficult in movie, but they did it in the 60s so it is possible, but that's, that was a very major difference yeah.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if there's any other notes that you want. I'm, I've gone through my notes, but I, I guess one thing. I mean we, we already talked about the one thing we like, which is Theo's change, but is there any other, uh, any other change that you liked and you're like? You know what? Whatever I like it, I, I, yeah, I think for me it's, it's. I liked all the random rooms in the house. It just made it fun for me, that's just me.
Speaker 2:That's just me. I think I can like this movie for what it is and what it was when I first watched it. If I try to compare it to the book, I'm just not going to like the movie. If I see it as a separate entity, it was still bad, but it's a fun kind of bad. It's a silly kind of bad. It's a silly kind of bad. Um, some of my notes were making you laugh because when we finally see hugh crane, like he finally manifests, I was like, okay, mcu baddie, like he straight up looks like the next dr doom with his cloak and the way they the cgi. Um. So if I see it as something separate, I can enjoy it as a silly fun movie. There's one of the things we always talk about in the horror community is not all horror needs to have a purpose. Some horror is just for fun. And this is a movie where, if you're cleaning and you need some mindless entertainment just to laugh at, just to silly enjoy, it's a good one for that.
Speaker 1:So I don't hate the movie, it's just silly yeah, and what is the change that annoyed you the most?
Speaker 2:re-watching. It was, and I get it. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a gorgeous woman, but the overly sexified tone of it. Like luke just couldn't keep his hands off her. Every comment he had was oh my gosh, she's so hot, I'm gonna go see what she's up to because she's hot. And then dropping in a bisexual line and mind you, this was the 90s where bisexuality was kind of um, was the word fetishized as opposed to respected. Those little things really bothered me. I did like that they make theo nice um. But it got to the point where I was like I'm surprised at the end Theo's clothes is not more revealing, like surprised they didn't tear right here on her chest, a little bit on the legs. Yeah, I was half expecting that to happen because just I didn't understand the need to overly sexify that character.
Speaker 1:I'm surprised you didn't say the hand line, oh the hand. Say the hand line oh the hand line.
Speaker 2:The hand line is also one of my favorite moments in the book. So basically in the book there's this really intense moment where they're obviously in the room, they're in the dark and I say it's Nell and Theo, because at this point they're trying to sleep together because they're so freaked out and they start hearing the noises. The house is getting scary and there's this whole internal monologue with Nell because she feels Theo grab her hand. And as things get scarier, nell keeps saying like she's squeezing so hard, she's going to break my hand because she's squeezing so hard, she's gonna break my hand because she's squeezing so hard. Once everything stops and they turn the lights on, she looks and nobody was holding her hand and she says the line who was holding my hand in the movie? How do I even describe that scene?
Speaker 1:she's getting I don't know. She she's getting haunted in her room and at one point she gets like the children are coming alive and they're just like, oh my gosh, watch out, eleanor, it's Hugh Crane. And Hugh Crane's like manifesting through like stained glass in the room and at one point he like shoots her out of the bed and then she's just like like who is holding my hand? And that's it.
Speaker 2:She's literally crawling on the floor being like who was holding my hand? It's like there was no instance of you thinking someone could hold your hand, like you just got flung across the room I yeah, uh, I mean, but yeah, this, this movie is so, so silly and one of the the things.
Speaker 1:This is really really, really nitpicky, but it really bugged me once I noticed because I'd never noticed this before and then this is the first time I noticed it, so now it just really bugged me now that I did. But so you open, so the gates of Hill House it's, it's raw iron gates, fine. And then there's the crest, the Hill House crest, and there's like spikies or surrounding the crest, but you open the gates and the crest splits in half to open so you can open the gates. So like the design is on the gates but it's it's it can split in half so the gates can open.
Speaker 1:At one point luke is trying to like get out, is like trying to smash the gates down so they can leave. He drives nell's car out of nowhere. He's like now I need your car and it's like you can't use your own car. But okay, um, so he takes her car and he smashes it into the gates and this just causes the full crest to fall on the door, on on the roof of the the car. I mean it's like how could the full crest intact fall into the car when it splits in half, like if it should, at least if it. You want the whole thing to fall, at least half of it should like this, should split, I don't know, yeah that is so nitpicky, but that just really bugged me, yeah.
Speaker 1:But you know what, though I? I still had a fun time watching it, it's a terrible, terrible adaptation, but I I still like it. Honestly.
Speaker 2:I'm still gonna tell you to go watch it because it's fun yeah, and don't watch it with the expectation because it's a good book. It is a great book. Don't watch it with the expectations of an adaptation of a great book. Watch it for a silly horror movie, silly Silly fun time. The only other thing that I put on my notes I wish they kept the house evil, because that's part of what the book talks about and it leaves it that way, that it's evil and Luke has that really cool closing line.
Speaker 1:The Hill House has stood for 80 years and will stand for 80 more.
Speaker 2:Because it gives that characteristic. And in this movie it's like Well, there's even a scene of the Dudleys Coming back and Seeing Theo and Montague and Meryl Meryl Meryl. Why was that the only change, like the only character name change, I don't know, but anyway, and you get the idea that it's all over. They were able to traumatize. Stay in the house until the Dudleys came again to open the gate, but the evil is over, because the evil got caught in the house until the Dudleys came again to open the gate, but the evil is over.
Speaker 1:Because the evil got caught in the gates of hell.
Speaker 2:The evil got caught in the gates of hell, but in the book you're still feeling unsettled about the house, and the house will continue to live on being the evil bitch that it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, that being said, I rated the book four stars I think I read the book five stars. It's one of my favorite books and I rated the film two and a half stars.
Speaker 2:I think two and a half no, you rated it two I rated it two. Okay, I rated two.
Speaker 1:I was just looking at a set of box scores so I know it was two stars. So, that being said, the winner is the book, obviously it's going to be the book. This is a terrible film, but I still think, like I said, watch it it's a fun time, like it's mindless entertainment, and sometimes films don't need to be anything other than mindless entertainment.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Sometimes you just need to laugh.
Speaker 1:And you will A lot With this film. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's a good one. It's a fun one. Yeah, yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 1:It's a fun. It's yeah, it's a fun. I I still think you should watch the film. Read the book. The book is clear winner. There's not no contest. But read the book because it's good and actually I think the read. I rated the film, the book, three stars. I don't know, I rated it either three or four stars. Either way, the book is the clear winner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:But I still recommend the film. But I recommend the 60s version even more than the 1999 adaptation than the 1999 adaptation.
Speaker 2:If you want a good scary movie kind of intense, makes you wonder what's really going on the 60s one Just want a fun kind of horror movie then watch the 90s one, yeah.
Speaker 1:So thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of books versus movies. Next time I will be talking about mickey 7 and its 2025 adaptation. Mickey 17. If you like this podcast, leave it a rating and a review, tell your friends all about it and I will see you next time. And you will see Orlando. Next time we talk about either comics or horror. Expect him to be a guest anytime I talk about those things, just because I know he that's his bread and butter and he just he makes it fun thank you, thank you Appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you for this one, too, because this is really one of my favorite. The 60s one is one of my favorite movies and this is generally one of my favorites. I was really excited to talk about it.
Speaker 1:Of course I mean I feel like it would be mean to not include you, Just like it would be so mean to include you to not include you if I ever do a crow episode that's exciting I'm not promising anything, I'm still. I'm catching up a little bit, or?
Speaker 2:you're gonna make me do the corey me I'm not gonna have this.
Speaker 1:I don't, I have no, no, no, we're doing the one with brendan yeah, okay I have my limits. I I this one. I would have loved to have talked about the 60s version, but I wasn't opposed to talking about the 90s version because I do have a lot of nostalgia for it. I have no nostalgia towards the Crow remake yeah so alright, see you next time.