We Have Always Lived in the Castle

source: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is my favorite standalone book. I even adapted it into a screenplay during college (for fun!) This was perfection. There are a few things different from the book, but not anything that changes the plot or characters. In fact, it enhances it a bit so that the audience understands their motives. There is word-for-word dialogue in some places. I understand the low ratings, as it's a pretty deep and disturbing story, and so some people just aren't going to understand it if they just watched it for Sebastian Stan. But as someone who has absolutely devoured this book, it couldn't have been done better.

As with most mystery films in modern cinema the intrigue which captures an audiences attention lies in a film-makers ability to sustain and unravel a plot sufficiently over the duration of a movie. The pacing of this movie is painfully slow, but only because there is a limited amount of content to faithfully adapt. Otherwise, it's well acted, surprising and suspenseful. Do yourself a favor and do not ruin the movie's plot for yourself before you watch it, otherwise you'll be depriving yourself of most its entertainment value

I read this book in junior high at the recommendation of my English teacher. I loved it then and I've since read all of Shirley Jackson's writings. She was influential for Stephen King and I'm sure for many other horror writers, and the reason is obvious - her books are chilling. Her short story, The Lottery is classic. That being said, this movie was pretty true to the novel as I remember it, and it is an exceptional adaptation. For those who did not enjoy it, you must not have read her other works. Give it a chance and look at the deeper meaning.

On a need of a quick watch I decided to see this movie, without knowing anything about it. Apparently, this is based on a book... if people say this is a good adaptation, then the book is a total garbage too. At the beginning of the film I though "oh so this is just a bad attempt of copying Wes Anderson style". The first 5 or 10 minutes are ok, but if it doesn't convince you, you should totally skip this. The movie looks decent, is competently shot, I can say some thought was put in the production. But the movie fails in the most important aspect: the history. What the history is really about? I don't know. I suppose is about a girl that is on the a*tism spectrum that believes she's a witch and makes spells so no one of the a**holes that live down in the town can came and molest her and her high on dr*g$ sister and her $enile crazy uncle. Then one day a cousin arrives to their house (we don't even know if he's actually their cousin), because we assume he's broke or something, and threatens to break the already broken life of our protagonist. What I have described may not sound thaaaaaaat bad to you, but believe me when I tell you this is the most irritating, non-sensical, weird, odious movie in recent years. The film could be not so bad if we had good characters... but no, everyone on screen is a total moron. We're supossed to care about this is family of lunatics? I can't if the protagonist is the most unlikable woman ever. What's her motivation? Hell, what's the motivation of everyone? The only semi-realistic character is the cousin played by Sebastian Stan, and is still a really bad character. If the history couldn't be any worse, the ending is one of the worst I have seen (there's even awful cgi for budget reasons). This film is a total mess targeted to no one, filled with the most unlikable characters ever that lead a totally non-sensical history where nothing happens. Not even the beauty of Alexandra Daddario can save this crap

There is not one likable character in this story. The younger sister is an irritating, murderous psycho, the older sister is a nitwit, the cousin is a conman, and the uncle is a mumbling moron. The townspeople are animals. When the house started to burn, I genuinely hoped they were all going to die and the movie would be over. Instead we were treated to another 20 minutes of stupidity.

This was an incredibly captivating movie with wonderful music and thought out scenes. I couldn't take my eyes away from it for the entire movie. It doesn't follow the normal movie beats, but that's what I loved

Like others have stated, this film is not scary at all. It is beautifully shot with great acting. I didn't read the book, but now I want to. Definitely slow and intriguing, which can still make for a good film. A good film to watch if you're relaxing and want to just appreciate good actors/actresses, and an interesting exploration of human behavior.

This movie has no true genre. I was expecting gothic horror, but perhaps that was fault in having never read the book. It certainly was not scary (zero chills), nor was it suspenseful. But it does leave us pondering how equipped we are to handle human cruelty, both in enduring it, and in our capacity to forgive. Do we isolate ourselves or do we try to push forward? Or do we completely unravel and seek revenge or play out our hurt and rage until it has been avenged? These are questions this movie will leave you pondering, and of course much depends on our lot in life, our finances, our social support, our inner strength and many other factors.

The acting was awesome and the story was very clever. Taissa Farmiga is brilliant, she could become one of the great actors of our time. Alexandra Daddario also carried her role with depth and strength. All around great movie.