We Have Always Lived In The Castle (2018)

I wrote about Shirley Jackson's novel We Have Always Lived In The Castle about three years ago, so I will dispense with much of the plot in discussing the 2018 film adaptation, directed by Stacie Passon. Suffice it to say that it still about two sisters who live in their ancestral New England home. Six years earlier, much of the family was killed by poison from a sugar bowl, but the older sister (Alexandria Daddario) was acquitted. The younger sister (Taissa Farmiga) tries to keep the family safe by casting spells, which often involve burying personal items.

The fulcrum of both the book and the novel is when a cousin (Sebastian Stan) arrives. It is clear to the viewer that he is after the family fortune locked away in a safe, but he also entices Daddario with stories of the outside world. She has not left the house in six years. Farmiga is instantly suspicious of him, and uses every bit of wile and magic she has to make him leave.

Also living in the house is their Uncle Julian (Crispin Glover), who was also poisoned but survived, though wheelchair bound. The three of them have spent the last six years living a reclusive life. Farmiga is the one that goes into town to buy groceries, and is scorned by the citizens.

The film is almost entirely faithful to the book, though drops the mention of a younger brother and deals a different ending for Charles. Passon has mostly succeeded at bringing a sense of dread to the proceedings. We can't be sure if Farmiga has any magical powers at all, or if it's all just in her head, which I think is appropriate. The film also is rife with paranoia, as Jackson undoubtedly wrote this book based on her own feelings of being an outsider in a New England town (she was the wife of a university professor at Bennington, although she earned more than he did).

Both of the lead actresses are fine, though they don't look like each other (how this got by the Fanning sisters I don't know). Glover, though playing a man who has lost his marbles, gives a restrained performance, for him. Stan is good at showing how he is a normal, albeit greedy guy, plopped down in a house of insanity.

I had wondered about why this had never been made into a film before, and I'm not sure I would have done much differently. That it isn't a more powerful experience is probably due to the source material, which is more suited to be read in the chill of night, rather than seen on a big screen. But it's an admirable job.