'We Have Always Lived In The Castle' — And It Feels Like It
Shirley Jackson's novel is "a Gothic psychodrama that eats itself from the inside." But this adaptation proves too low-key and repetitive to build suspense and succeeds only in testing patience.
We have always lived in Shirley Jackson's castle, whether we knew it or not. The Vermont author's fables — grim visions of humans driven mad by forces they don't understand — have been a part of the American subconscious ever since her breakout short story "The Lottery" sent subscribers into dry heaves in 1948. As the modern horror/thriller world has largely gone stale outside of a rarified few voices like Jordan Peele, filmmakers have turned to Jackson like a study-abroad, and now we have a long-gestating film adaptation of her final novel, .
