The Haunting Of Hill House And Poltergeist

1398 Words6 Pages
In most fictional stories, setting seems to be just the background. In school students identify the year and city or area the story takes place in and that’s about all they discuss regarding it. In some stories that can be enough. The story focuses on just the characters and the setting does not play a crucial role to how the story develops. In the cases of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and Poltergeist directed by Tobe Hooper that is far from the truth. As both of these stories revolve around haunted houses, the setting can be described as the antagonist in the stories. the setting is crucial to both the plot and character development throughout The Haunting of Hill House and Poltergeist. The setting in both Poltergeist and The Haunting of Hill House, the house itself is its own character. Without the characterization of the house and focus on it, the horror aspect would be lacking. Having the house living it its own way alongside the other characters gives it the feeling that it has its own mind and can do whatever it pleases. While both the film and novel create these haunted houses, the characterization of them is alarmingly different. In Poltergeist, the house is just another cookie cutter suburban house. It was recently built, looks like every other house on the block, and at first glance has nothing scary about it. Hill House on the other hand is immediately described as unsettling and worn down. The town the house resides in is “a