Movie Reviews for Writers: Shirley

I do believe I have a new movie to add to my absolute favorite movies about writers. While Shirley may be a highly fictionalized telling of Shirley Jackson’s life during the time she was writing her second novel, Hangsaman. This movie is a nigh-perfect blending of life and the sort of creep factor that Jackson wove into her stories, and the voiceover as she reads from her novel in progress while she and her “friend” Rosie go about their lives is nothing if not haunting. 

Don’t be fooled when you see this one listed among thrillers or even horror in the categories on streaming services. It is thrilling and horrific, yes, but not in any kind of way that category implies. Instead, it’s the active and passive shots the characters take at each other, the way they live with both known and suspected evils, the intertwining of the central mystery of Hangsaman and the lives of Shirley and Rosie that brings the thrill and horror. It’s horrific and thrilling in the same way Monsters Ball was. It’s the kind of movie that makes a viewer think, “God, as people, we pretty much suck.” 

This one isn’t just sprinkled with writer stuff. It’s the backbone, the meat, and the nerves of this flick. This movie only works because Shirley Jackson is a horror (among other genres) writer.

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