We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Based on Shirley Jackson’s titular 1962 final novel, this taut gothic tale of secrecy, a family decimated by unsolved murders, and a mysterious interloper who threatens everyone’s precarious hold on sanity, is an atmospheric, highly stylized thriller. Director Stacie Passon channels Jackson’s signature tones of paranoia and dread, engaging in a visual audacity that never crosses the line into camp. Eighteen-year-old Mary Katherine Blackwood (Taissa Farmiga), nicknamed "Merricat," is the awkward and socially belittled youngest member of a posh New England family who were all but wiped out in their mansion on a hill when several members, including Merricat’s parents, were poisoned by arsenic mixed into a sugar bowl. Local townspeople’s suspicion of the survivors has turned to raging hatred, and Merricat has taken to her own brand of witchcraft, casting spells and burying objects on the Blackwood grounds to protect her agoraphobic older sister, Constance (Alexandra Daddario), and feeble Uncle Julian (Crispin Glover). A not-so-delicate balance between all parties is upended when an obnoxious stranger (Sebastian Stan) who claims to be a cousin turns up at the mansion and—sensing the fragility of the sisters’ and Julian’s situation—throws his weight around in an effort to locate family treasures. Recommended. (T. Keogh)