Setting. Large hotel / large mansion. The Overlook was isolated in the Rockies during the winter. Hill House isn't quite so isolated, but it sits alone on a large out-of-the way property.
Basic plot. Ghosts of the Overlook drive Jack Torrance slowly mad, turning him against his own family. Ghosts of Hill House slowly drive Olivia insane, turning her into a threat against her own family. Both the Overlook and Hill House are haunted not just by one ghost, but a large number and variety. Neither Jack nor Olivia see the ghosts for their true nature... they see them as 'real' people.
Wendy Torrance discovers that Jack's manuscript that he has been working on for months is just one line "All work and no play..." repeated over and over again. When Olivia draws up the piping schematics for Hill House, it's just the outline of their forever home repeated over and over again.
Both Jack and Danny Torrance can see the ghosts, but not Wendy until the very end. Similarly, Olivia and the kids are all aware of the Hill House ghosts, but not Hugh Crain until the very end.
Danny Torrance was gifted with The Shining, a supernatural ability to see people's true nature / hidden secrets. Theo has the same ability and Olivia mentions that it's a trait that all the girls have to varying degrees.
The handyman, Mr. Dudley, is keenly aware that Hill House is haunted and tries to warn Hugh and keep Olivia safe. This role is fulfilled in the The Shining by Hollaran, the cook who also aware of the Overlook's evil and tries to caution Wendy and Danny.
In The Shining, the locked room 237 holds a special significance. In Hill House it's the room with the red door. In both cases the rooms are locked shut and when they are finally opened bad shit happens.
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Sunny (13)
5 years ago
In The Shining both twins were ghosts, in Hill House only one of them was, but still, there were twins.
And when Shirley entered her "Red Room", the hotel bar, I immediately thought of The Shining's bar scene.
The woman in 237 turns from beautiful to rotten (except it's only in the movie?), in Hill House the (main) ghosts keep changing the same way back and forth.
OK, these are just minor similarities.
Sometimes THoHH reminded me a lot of those japanese horror movie ghosts (long dark hair and no face, the crawling on the floor...)
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[deleted]
5 years ago
Yeah, it's not so much they copied the story... it's more like they looked at The Shining's (the movie) elements, and threw them in a blender to create something new. I think it enhanced my enjoyment of the series through the association of familiar things I know from the movie.
Re Japanese horror movie ghosts... Horror movies haven't scared me in decades but I do remember both The Ring and The Grudge creeping me out, particularly the ghosts in The Grudge. The weird creaky noise they made, their pale heads sliding up and down in doorways... Similarly, the bit with the weird -- almost insect like crawling -- also freaked me out.
There's a name for this specific depiction of ghosts in Japanese culture, although I can't recall it right now. In Western culture, ghosts are seen as the expression of the specific people they were in life. They maintain their identity after death, their motivation -- usually revenge -- is really just an extension of the same motivations they had when they were alive. They can be reasoned with to an extent. They can know peace once the living have addressed their concerns.
The ghosts of The Grudge and The Ring seem more mindless, if that's the right way to express it. They seem to have lost their human identity altogether, operating purely as some sort of alien and malevolent intelligence. They don't understand that they are dead and were once human. You get the sense they just want to harm and hurt, have no interest in trying to right a wrong, or make peace with their existence.
And that freaks me out...
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Sunny (13)
5 years ago
Yeah, I think they also watched the korean movie "A Tale of Two Sisters" (2003). It's reminding me a lot of the series atmosphere-wise but the most obvious is the korean bent neck lady haunting one of the girls.
A second thing are the bright red wardrobe doors (the wardrobe playing a significant role).
There are other minor similarities but that'd spoil too much...
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