Following a group of people participating in an investigation into ‘supernatural manifestations’ at a reportedly haunted mansion, The Haunting of Hill House is an iconic piece of horror fiction. Now, Shirley Jackson’s terrifying haunted house tale is getting The Folio Society treatment, featuring seven unnerving images by Angie Hoffmeister.

When Dr. John Montague decides to undergo a social analysis on paranormal activity, Hill House is the perfect fit. Nestled between remote hills, the house is ideal for the people in his experiment: shy Eleanor who has been caring for her disabled mother and artist Theodora. Both have been chosen for their past experiences with the supernatural and they, along with the doctor and Luke, the young heir to Hill House, decide to spend the summer at the spooky mansion with a chequered history. Soon, strange events begin to happen that are certain to end in tragedy…

Written in 1959, The Haunting of Hill House is a seminal haunted house novel, inspiring many novelists and spawning feature films, a play and, more recently, a Netflix series. With iconic imagery (Jackson herself tracked down the perfect-looking mansion in California… which turned out to be built by great-great-grandfather!), it’s no wonder the novel has inspired re-tellings in various mediums and now readers can experience it along with seven new images by artist Angie Hoffmeister in this latest Folio edition. Check out some of them here…

The book’s wraparound immediately pulls no punches, depicting a haunting image of a woman (is it Eleanor? Or Old Miss Crain herself?), which leads to a cover that’s as imposing as Hill House itself. Inside, the seven illustrations range from spooky revelations around the fire, to spectral hand-holding, to poor Eleanor (is the house haunted? Or is she going mad?). There are also small drawings at the end of each chapter, which linger with you long after the contents of that chapter have been read.

The book also contains an introduction from multiple Bram Stoker Award-winner, Joyce Carol Oates, who delves into the history of the novel, noting its many re-tellings (Oates includes the 1963 adaptation, with actress Julie Harris as Eleanor, and compares that with Harris’ similarly heartbreaking role in 1952’s The Member Of The Wedding). Oates also explores Jackson’s own history, including her relationship with her own mother and her abiding theme of the destruction of the female by the actions of others.

The Folio Society edition of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, illustrated by Angie Hoffmeister and introduced by Joyce Carol Oates is available exclusively from www.FolioSociety.com

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Horror film is a more recent creation, yet still 100 years old with the release of Nosferatu in 1922. It makes my list for its minimalistic effects with maximum fright factor and still holds up today. I also count Whitley Strieber’s The Hunger. Both his magnificent work of fiction and the feature film. Having David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve as immortals is the very definition of gothic horror.

Also on the list is Murder by Decree, the 1979 film starring Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes investigating the Whitechapel murders. Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes? It doesn’t get much better than that.

Penny Dreadful, the Sky Atlantic horror mash-up and not the original penny-a-fright serials that made many a Victorian wet their knickers. Three seasons of Eva Green and Rory Kinnear (who as an actor can do no wrong) set in Victorian London. Come now. It’s every goth’s dream. It’s my number one no matter how many times I’ve watched it.

Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House is the quintessential haunted house story, but by no means the only one. Her We Have Always Lived in the Castle is equally brilliant. And terrifying. Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher rounds out my fiction choices.

Don’t Look Now, the 1973 film starring Donald Sutherland is a classic, eerie, creepy gothic horror film set in Venice that will cause you to never look at small children in red cloaks without suspicion. Also it doesn’t hurt that Warren Beatty, the boyfriend of Julie Christie at the time,  demand ‘that’ sex scene in the film with Donald Sutherland be cut out as it was rumoured there was nothing simulated about it.

There is, however, one final film which for me is chilling from start to finish. And really, it’s not gothic, but truly horrifying as it is based on a true story. Or so they say. The original Amityville Horror with James Brolin and Margot Kidder scared me half to death in 1979 as a twelve-year-old. And it still does today. There is something about the 1970s. A creepy house. A son murdering his entire family and disembodied voices telling totally stupid people to: ‘Get out!’ It just terrifies me. Watch it alone if you dare.

There you have it. My choices. I actually watched every one of these again during pandemic, as well as reading The Hunger for umpteenth time. Simply brilliant.

The Gift, Book 1: Eleanor is the first in The Gift trilogy and out now from Whitefox.

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