Think of Norman Bates’ mum’s house or the attic in The Exorcist. Bad vibes leak from the walls and floor, memories of horrors past still walk its halls, and it might be conspiring with terrible supernatural forces to attack the unsuspecting humans foolish enough to walk in there. This adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House might be the absolute peak of it. Rose Glass’s astonishing debut wanders deep into the recesses of a troubled young woman’s mind in a story which the director describes as Travis Bickle taking a trip to the seaside. The film follows Maud, a nurse who becomes obsessed with her ward Amanda, with the lines between reality and fantasy ever blurring before the ending delivers what Glass calls a “short, sharp shock”.
The tripartite narrative centres on Ana at three stages in her life (played by Cassandra Forêt, Charlotte Eugène Guibeaud and Marie Bos respectively). … Read More
