Michael Burke's Reviews > A Haunting on the Hill

Reentering the House

There was a fear. Fear of someone returning to tarnish the spirit of THE house. Shirley Jackson’s estate granted Elizabeth Hand permission to revisit Hill House. Sometimes things are best left undisturbed.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House” is a classic. In “Danse Macabre” Stephen King praised it as one of the most important horror novels of the 20th century. The 1963 film version, “The Haunting,” is my favorite horror film. It was later mangled in a 1999 treatment with Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones– very CGI, not very Shirley.

In 2021, Ellen Datlow harvested a solid horror anthology, based on the style of Shirley Jackson, by the name of “When Things Get Dark.” A story that stood out, even among such terrific entries, was “For Sale by Owner,” by Elizabeth Hand. She is a well-established author and has won the Shirley Jackson Award a number of times– this was enough for me to approach it with an open mind.

Thankfully, this was not a retelling of the original story. “Haunting on the Hill” is a sequel only in location. The original characters are no longer around, this being decades after the original, so there is a new cast visiting. A theatrical group is creating a play, “Witching Night,” and decides to find inspiration by workshopping the production with a stay in an eerie old house.

The atmosphere is kept intact. The characters are pure theater people, each eccentric in their way, with insecurities and back stories. Holly is the playwright and the one funding this stay. Her girlfriend, Nisa, is composing the music and is endlessly singing. Stevie is the sound designer and has a role, as well. Amanda is an aging star looking for this part to return her to her glory days. Below the surface here we find Holly resenting Nisa for trying to grab too much credit, Nisa and Stevie are concealing an affair they have had, and Amanda is sure she hears everyone else whispering trash about her. Yes, you have egos ready to blow sky high.

The house does its thing and supernatural elements drive the cast against each other. It is hard to be sympathetic towards any of them and there are a lot of leftovers in these back stories which are never resolved. An element of witchcraft is suggested, though never really developed. Finally, it could just be me, but I was puzzled by the choice of large black rabbits being utilized as symbols of terror throughout the book.

“Haunting on the Hill” had a strong start but ultimately failed to pay off for me. It was not a trainwreck, it did nothing to sully Shirley Jackson’s creation, it just had a hard time measuring up.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Mulholland Books for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.