Every Major Shirley Jackson Movie And TV Show, Ranked

Author Shirley Jackson was a unique trailblazer in American fiction, crafting horror stories that weave supernatural elements with stories about grief, trauma, and mental illness. Over her lifetime she published six novels and more than 200 short stories, along with two memoirs, but surprisingly there have been only five film and television adaptations of her work. Plenty of others have been inspired by Jackson, of course, but only four films and one TV series actually seek to adapt her work in some way, to varying degrees of success. (There's also Josephine Decker's "Shirley," a fictionalized version of the author's life, where she's played in a phenomenal turn by Elisabeth Moss.)

There's something to appreciate in each of these works because the source material is so rich, but some Shirley Jackson adaptations are far better than others. So, let's take a look at them from worst to best, starting with the earliest adaptation: the 1957 Hugo Haas noir film "Lizzie."

The earliest of the Jackson adaptations is also the weakest, if only because it's both a lesser Jackson story and held back by the limitations of the era. Based on Jackson's third novel, "The Bird's Nest," Haas's film follows a young woman named Elizabeth (Eleanor Parker) who has three separate, distinct personalities: the shy Elizabeth, the volatile Lizzie, and Beth, the well-adjusted mix of the two. Dr. Wright (Richard Boone) must try to help her become Beth permanently, as both Elizabeth and Lizzie are self-destructive in their own ways. 

Though it came out in the same year as "The Three Faces of Eve," which won an Academy Award and also featured a woman with multiple personalities and three identities, "Lizzie" has mostly become a footnote in film history. Jackson herself had a mixed reaction to the movie, reading the screenplay at one point and finding it reductive, comparing it to an "Abbott and Costello" film, then later seeing the film and telling a friend she "thought it was very good," and "much improved" over the first screenplay she had read. It would be interesting to see female take on "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" with a psychological twist adapted for contemporary audiences, and while "Lizzie" has its great moments, "The Bird's Nest" deserves another shot on the screen. 

Opinions on the 1999 Jan de Bont film "The Haunting" are wildly divided, even among critics here at /Film. While some viewers think it's one of the worst horror remakes of all time (it's a remake of the 1963 film of the same name, both of which are based on Jackson's 1959 novel "The Haunting of Hill House"), others have found a lot to love in this campy, yet absolutely gorgeous movie. Seriously, "The Haunting" is a visual delight with some absolutely phenomenal production design and truly unique set pieces. Even if the over-the-top 90s performances by stars Lili Taylor, Owen Wilson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Liam Neeson aren't really your thing, the visuals of "The Haunting" are truly something to behold. The movie's haunted home is a sprawling manor with some truly incredible rooms, including a sort of carousel room with mirrored walls and a spinning floor, a hallway with a flowing stream passable only by stepping from one book-shaped stepping stone to another, and a giant fireplace that hides a secret door. 

Though "The Haunting" is a lot of fun to look at and can be very enjoyable if you're into a specific flavor of late-90s camp, it's also the weakest of the "Haunting of Hill House" adaptations by far. 

Director Stacie Passon's 2018 adaptation of Jackson's final novel, the 1962 gothic mystery "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," is one of the most directly accurate representations of a novel ever put to screen. The screenplay follows the novel almost beat for beat, following sisters Mary Katherine "Merricat" (Taissa Farmiga) and Constance Blackwood (Alexandra Daddario), who could not be more different but are tied together by a terrible secret that haunts their family. They're also outcasts from society, and when their estranged, charming cousin Charles (Sebastian Stan) suddenly appears, it threatens to split the sisters and drive what remains of the family apart. The performances range from decent to great and the production design is phenomenal. "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" is gorgeous. Unfortunately, it's also pretty detached and cold because it tries to mimic Merricat's narrative perspective, which doesn't quite work. 

Like many movies based on novels with a protagonist as narrator, "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" feels like it's missing some vital element by not having Merricat's internal dialogue or thoughts represented. (Honestly, that's the biggest issue with the "Hunger Games" movies as well, because Katniss's "voice" is a vital part of those books.) "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" is a good movie and adaptation, but could have probably used some tweaks to make it work better for the screen.  

Jackson's fifth novel, "The Haunting of Hill House," is an excellent supernatural and psychological thriller about a group of people with paranormal experiences who come to the haunted Hill House as the guests of researcher Dr. John Montague, only to be mentally undone one by one through some supernatural force. In the 1963 Robert Wise film "The Haunting," Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) replaces Dr. Montague, but otherwise the film is fairly accurate to its source material. Sure, Theo (Claire Bloom) is sexed up a little and the supernatural elements are made more ambiguous — with the idea that the perspective character, Nell (Julie Harris), was mentally unstable and many of the things she saw were actually just elements of her fragmented mind — but it's still pretty darn accurate. 

"The Haunting" is excellent, and there's good reason why director Martin Scorsese ranked it as the scariest film of all time. It's full of great performances and was partially filmed in an actually haunted hotel, bringing Jackson's story to life without deviating too far in any way. Some of the effects are dated and it's hard not to wonder what this gorgeous gothic mansion would have looked like in color, but the 1963 version of "The Haunting" is a great ghost story, a great film about mental illness, and a great adaptation of the novel. There's just one thing: Mike Flanagan's "The Haunting of Hill House" Netflix limited series is somehow even better. 

Flanagan's "The Haunting of Hill House" is a fairly loose adaptation of its source material, taking character names and traits and assigning them to one very haunted family. Nell (Victoria Pedretti) is the youngest of the Crain siblings and still has some psychic abilities, though for very different reasons in the series than in the novel or any of the other adaptations. The Crain family haunt Hill House and are haunted by it, both literally and metaphorically, in a show that examines childhood trauma, grief, and more within a supernatural setting. The Netflix series into the greater themes of Jackson's whole body of work beyond just "Hill House" to create a heartbreaking and absolutely horrifying gothic horror story for the ages. 

Sometimes adaptations can improve upon the source material while staying true to its heart, like the "Interview with the Vampire" and "Hannibal" television shows, which both changed up timelines and characters but feel like the best adaptations possible. "The Haunting of Hill House" is one of those rare, beautiful shows that works better on repeat viewings because there are so many nuanced layers to the storytelling. It's a shame that Flanagan moved on from Jackson in the other seasons of his "The Haunting" anthology series, because he clearly understands her emotional resonance through American gothic storytelling. It would be great to see him tackle more of her work.