The Haunting of Hill House

What made The Haunting of Hill House particularly interesting to read was the fact that the fear factor in it was subtle. What I mean by this is that there were rarely explicitly in your face, scary moments where the reader was terrified suddenly and in a major way. Rather, there was subtle tensions and moments here and there which causes the characters in the story and the people reading it to be anxious and on edge waiting to see what will happen next. Readers are left to pick up on subtle clues from the character’s narratives and lives in order to try to determine where the source of the strange and scary events in the house are coming from and whether they are real or figments of their imaginations. In my opinion, obvious occurrences such as seemingly bloody messages on the wall are less important plot points than the character development. Understanding where characters come from adds to the eerie element more because it creates doubt in characters like Eleanor’s testimonies and therefore the reader regarding the reality of these images. Furthermore, this doubt adds to the nuanced fear factor because nobody is ever sure what is going to happen and how real it is. In a way, the way the story is written reminds me of the Paranormal Activity movie series because rather than in your face fear moments, the audience relies more on the character development and small movements here and there as signs of haunting.