Ma was a serious Shirley Jackson fan, and I remember trying to read this one when I was a kid, but I was still into Dr. Doolittle and the Hardy Boys at the time, and this gothic tale about two reclusive sisters living in a fortresslike mansion with their dotty uncle was a bit above my pay grade. One thing that stayed with me was this taunting nursery rhyme, which is all we get as a backstory for a while: "Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea? Oh no, said Merricat, you'll poison me."
Stacie Passon's film adaptation of Jackson's novel is brilliant, visually and dramatically. I don't know whether the decision to film on the east coast of Ireland was esthetic or economic, but the acid greens and phosphorescent yellows of the rain-soaked woods furnish the perfect backdrop for Merricat's obsessive rituals, burying coins and magic charms while chanting protective spells. Taissa Farmiga, now in her mid-twenties, gives a fine spooky performance as the elflike teenage Merricat, and bodacious Alexandra Daddario gets to stretch a bit more than she did in "Baywatch," I'm guessing, as elder sister Connie, who floats dreamily through a fantasy of gracious country living, baking pies in the kitchen and pottering in the garden. Connie can only venture a few steps from their door--for reasons we can only guess at initially--so Merricat makes a weekly trip to town, enduring the taunts and threats of the locals (at least one of whom seems to have a valid grievance).
Jackson's novel is, essentially, a tale told by a psychopath. It's also a tale of WASPy repression, since the decisive events in the sisters' lives are something they never speak of--Merricat ties up the loose ends for us in voiceover as she writes in her journal. Fans of the genre won't be surprised when a disrupter turns up, a smarmy cousin who tempts Connie with fantasies of an Italian honeymoon. The psychic bond between the sisters is threatened, and for the second time in their lives, one of them (no spoilers here!) is required to step up and take care of business.
"Castle" seems close to a perfect film, though limited by the conventions of the gothic genre. The sisters' emotional responses are overdetermined by the usual murky "family secrets," and the climax reveals how, as in Jackson's canonical story "The Lottery," they've been made scapegoats for the suppressed violent impulses of an entire community. It's interesting to compare this one (favorably) with a showoffy formal exercise like "Stoker," which also owes a lot to Jackson's novel, but where color coding the sets and costumes seems to have been more of a priority than developing the relationships among the characters.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
2018
Action / Drama / Horror / Mystery / Thriller
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
2018
Action / Drama / Horror / Mystery / Thriller
small town based on novel or book dysfunctional family agoraphobia family tragedy cousin cousin relationship
Plot summary
In Shirleyville, Vermont, during the sixties, sisters Merricat and Constance, along with their ailing uncle Julian, confined to a wheelchair, live isolated in a big mansion located on the hill overlooking the town, tormented by the memories of a family tragedy occurred six years ago. The arrival of cousin Charles will threaten the fragile equilibrium of their minds, haunted by madness, fear and superstition.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
May 18, 2019 at 05:39 PM
Director
Top cast
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One of my mother's old library books comes back to haunt us
Strange But Good
I just love it: a nice strange story and mood, a fine working cast (Taissa Farmiga and Alexandra Daddario are just to gorgeous in their roles) and a top production - yes, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is not a movie for everyone, but if you like peculiar movies and stories, this one will give you an entertaining time. Good, if you like Stoker or Crimson Peak and such kind of movies.
What a darkly, chilling movie...
Brilliant performances by all involved.
Crispin Glover as Uncle Julian, was eerily calm, but disarmingly charming and the effect was disturbing.
Alexandra Daddario's character of Constance, was both, pitiful, loveable and yet...as Crispin Glover's Uncle Julian character... devastatingly creepy.
Watching her was almost like being privy to a dark secret something like if the Texas Chainsaw Massacre met Leave It To Beaver.
Such a lovely young woman...oh and by the way, she skins people alive, uses their bodies to fertilize her beautiful flower garden and the bones to grind for prize winning bread that wins the local garden club bake sale contest every year.
Yeah...expect to feel like that through the entire film.
An impending something...a pervasive dread that you just can't shake.
Like most eccentric families, they are tragic, and sympathy worthy but I wouldn't get within 10 feet of them.
I've never heard of the author, or the book, but this film was simply amazing.