‘I was right here, the whole time, none of you could see me’: Background Ghosts, Fear, and Vision in Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting (2018–2020)

Abstract

This article focuses on Mike Flanagan’s Haunting series and brings the pervasive background ghost to the foreground of analysis by studying that which is, as expressed by young Nell in The Haunting of Hill House, ‘right here the whole time’ and yet cannot be seen. Using Jacques Derrida’s seminal notion of ‘spectre’ and its related ‘visor effect’ concept to build textual analyses of both The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, this study demonstrates the ways in which the background ghost both reflects and challenges conventional horror dynamics of visuality and spectacularity. Such dynamics extend beyond the story space and involve the implied and near-sighted spectator, at once imperfect ghost-hunter and hunted by the background ghost. Such pervasive mechanics of haunting allow Flanagan to create a space of highly contemporary terror oozing from the screen to the implied viewer.